Our Team

Cory Solomon, Director of International Tours & Tournaments

Cory Solomon serves as the Director of Recruiting for International Tours and Tournaments. Solomon is uniquely qualified for these positions because of his extensive background in coaching volleyball at the collegiate, juniors, and high school levels, and also his years travelling and living abroad. After earning his bachelors degree from the University of Utah in 1987, he served as an assistant coach at Utah for five seasons. During his final three seasons, the “Utes” advanced to three consecutive NCAA 2nd round appearances.

After leaving the University of Utah, Solomon joined forces with Tim Kelly and assumed a lead role in the development of an International Recruiting Service as well as the expansion of Bring It Promotion’s International Tours. Solomon originally conducted business from his home in Innsbruck, Austria, and had the opportunity to watch European volleyball first hand. Living in Europe also afforded him the opportunity to serve as a coach on numerous Bring It Promotions tours. Solomon coached the Bring It USA team to a first place finish in the Sibillini, Italian Tournament with a win over the top under-20 team from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He has led numerous tours through the Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Japan. Solomon is also the director of the Global Challenge tournament which is held each July in Pula, Croatia and features over 24 teams from around the world. In addition, this year Solomon returned to his roots of coaching to lead the Chitwan Tigers to the Championship of the AADHI AABADI Nepal National Championships in Katmandu, Nepal.

Solomon resides in Maribor, Slovenia with his wife Andreja and their two daughters Daša and Mija. 

Nick Ptaschinski – Director of Player Management, Women’s Placements

Tony Westman – Director of Player Management, Men’s Placements

A veteran BIP Tour Coach and Scout, Tony is a Swedish citizen that has been a fixture in the international volleyball community since ’98. He has coached the Danish National Team, professional teams in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Austria and has had various American players on his teams over the years. He’s also spent several summers working university camps in the USA. He’s a great resource for BIP players because he understands both “the American mentality” and what’s expected and “normal” in Europe. Tony is a wealth of knowledge and connections for us with the teams in Scandinavia but also connected to teams across Europe and the rest of the volleyball world.

Melanie Gorter -Travel Coordinator

Melanie started her volleyball career at Rolling Thunder VBC in the Chicago area. She was a collegiate athlete and studied abroad in the UK with Central College of Pella, Iowa. She participated in the 2015 BIP Women’s Firesale Exposure Tour in Maribor, Slovenia before continuing on a month-long trek through Europe. In the summer of 2016, she became a core member of the BIP team building rosters and running tours for the annual Global Challenge Tournament in Pula, Croatia. Since then, she has assisted on many university tours all over the world. Mel currently handles university and club travel manifests along with individual logistics for all tours that BIP runs. While in the States, you can find her by the beach with her dog, Fred, or coaching boys and girls club volleyball.

Meredith Bonee -Operations & Educational Tours

Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Meredith played club for K2 Volleyball Club. She then went on to play collegiately as a five year starter at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. During college, she went on a university summer tour with BIP to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic and The New Year’s Bash tour to Spain & Portugal in 2021.

Meredith has two bachelors degrees from Maryville College in Marketing the other in International Studies. She was a graduate assistant at Johnson University while pursing her masters degree in management and graduated in 2025.

Meredith now works full time for Bring It helping set up and mange tours around the world. She has also started managing and organizing fully educational tours through BIP.

Chris Chen – Director / China

Chris Chen graduated from the Beijing Sports University and played for “8-1” Men’s Volleyball Club and the Chinese National Team during his illustrious professional career. He started his own business is 2008 and since then has been involved in manufacturing, product sourcing, custom design and business consulting in his native China. With a strong volleyball background and connections across China, Chris has also been involved in many volleyball related projects between China, USA, and Canada as well. His strength is in the sports realm and this is what he enjoys most: the sports aspect of the business. He founded Nomax Inc. in 2010 to start a new adventure combining his sports background with his business sense. Chris is in charge of all BIP Tours to China, and is also spearheading our efforts to get Chinese club and federation teams to the USA, Canada, and Europe. Chris is also our point man in the country for placing players in the high-level Chinese leagues, where opportunity is increasing annually as more and more teams embrace the idea of hiring “foreigners” for the season.

Jirka Honzik – Director / Czech Republic

Jirka was born November 17, 1976 in Prague, Czech Republic. He has lived all but one year in the Czech Republic, and in that year (1994-1995), Honzik lived with Cory Solomon’s family in Salt Lake City and was a foreign exchange student at West High School. During his exchange year, Honzik played volleyball for Twin Peaks VBC. Upon his return from the U.S.A. Honzik finished his high school education in Prague, then enrolled in Prague University of Economics, studying international trade, the European Union, and international relations. Honzik played on the Czech Junior National Team as a setter and went on to win the Czech Junior Championships four consecutive years. He played many years for a Czech professional team called MFF Praha.

Jirka has been assisting with BIP tours to the Czech Republic since 1998. He was the USA Delegation Manager for the BIP team in Spring Cup 2001 (Brno) and he is always a crowd favorite among University Tour players. He assists not only with tours, but has also helped us represent some Czech National Team players and was pivotal to the early success of the International Recruiting Service. He is invaluable to Bring It Promotions and is one of the main reasons that we are as successful as we are today. Honzik speaks fluent Czech, English, and German. His favorite music group is Metallica and he enjoys all sports.

Karmen “Kiki” Kocar

Karmen “Kiki” Kocar was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia and started playing volleyball when she was 12 years old. By 16 she was playing in Slovenia’s top league and has been playing professionally since 2003. She left Slovenia in 2005 to play her first season as a “foreigner” in Austria, and has since played with top professional clubs in France, Germany, and Croatia. She spent many years leading the Slovenian National Team as setter as well. Kiki is currently living in Maribor where she’s in a coaching program to eventually be a professional coach and has been helping with BIP Tours since 2008. She is fluent in English as well as Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian (yes, they’re different languages) and conversational in German.

Margaret “CJ” Sherman

CJ’s volleyball career began at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where she earned NAIA All Conference and All Region honors. A retiree from a highly successful collegiate head coaching career (Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of South Carolina Aiken, and University of Montevallo), CJ has switched her focus to Jacksonville Juniors where she is the Recruiting Coordinator and assistant coach for JJVA’s top teams.

She’s been married to Bill Sherman since 1988 and they have two beautiful daughters, Meghan and Kamryn. Meghan has been on tours since she was 13, she played at the University of Tampa and was a 2x AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter, she played professional volleyball in Hungary and Sweden for five seasons. Meghan married Daniel Magnusson in March 2016. Both Meghan and Daniel have coached collegiate indoor and beach volleyball in the USA and are involved with JJVA.

Kamryn has played on tours since she was 11 and played 3 years at NCAA 1 Clemson University graduating and taking her remaining eligibility to NCAA 2 Armstrong Atlantic State University where she was also a AVCA NCAA 2 All American Setter. Kamryn is on the administrative team at Jacksonville Country Day School. Kamryn and her husband, Nick St Thomas have twin boys, Cooper and Chase, and are still involved with the Global Challenge Tournament and New Years Bash tours.

Giannis Athanasopoulos

Alice Genna

Alice played for several junior and professional teams in Rome. In 2009, Alice won the Serie C regional championship with her team and the year after she played in Serie B with Roma 7 Volleyball team. In 2011, Alice was offered a full scholarship to play and study at North Carolina Central University in Division I NCAA. Alice moved to the United States and played for her school’s  team from 2011-2015 until she graduated and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Juvenile Justice. After college, Alice paused her volleyball career to obtain a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After working in New York for a year, Alice moved back to Italy where she is currently playing volleyball for a team in Rome. Alice comes from a volleyball family, as her mother is a coach, her brother plays professionally in Serie A2 with Roma Volley and her sister played college volleyball at LIU POST. In addition to volleyball, Alice enjoys reading and traveling the world to discover new cultures and traditions.  

Cedric Chrisostome

Cedric is from Paris and, like many French people, has a deep appreciation for good food and wine. A former setter, he played in the French National Division 2 before transitioning into coaching and teaching. He holds several volleyball coaching certifications and has developed his own performance and training philosophy. He also earned a PhD in sports science, along with degrees in strength and conditioning, nutrition, and health.

Cedric has taught for 15 years and currently teaches sport and nutrition at a university in Paris. He developed a strong connection with the United States after teaching there in 2009, and earlier when he joined the University of Akron volleyball staff in 2013. He regularly returns to the U.S. to visit friends and has coached volleyball camps in Houston, Texas.

Throughout his career, Cedric has coached numerous university teams in France, winning nine national championship titles. Alongside his academic and coaching work, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and co founded a corporate fitness startup, where he designed the programs, built the quality process, and selects all instructors.

He is also deeply interested in longevity, with a strong focus on the links between performance, health, and long term well being.

Cedric speaks fluent English and has been guiding and supporting BIP Tours in Paris since 2014.

Bastin Vrancken

Bastin moved with his wife Debbie from Holland to Nicaragua in 2011. He helped run the Casa Llanta Fund in Nicaragua and has been the director of Manos Unidas, the Casa Llanta Fund’s program serving people with disabilities. Together with Debbie, they built and rent out vacation homes in Nicaragua, and Bastin runs all volleyball tours in Central America.

The surf, culture, and tropical climate attracted them to the region. Additionally, he loves spending time in Europe with family and friends and traveling around. Bastin will be your guide and main point of contact throughout your time in Costa Rica.”

Ron Zwerver / Let’s Keep The Ball Flying Liaison

Ron Zwerver is a decorated former professional volleyball player and coach with a distinguished international career spanning over three decades. A three-time Olympian and gold medalist (Atlanta 1996), he earned multiple accolades including MVP of the 1992 Olympics and numerous “Best Attacker” and “Best Server” honors across major global tournaments. Following his retirement in 1999, Zwerver transitioned into sports and business management, holding leadership roles in event coordination and facility development. As a coach, he led national youth and senior teams in the Netherlands and served as Associate Head Coach at Oregon State University, achieving the program’s best-ever season. Since 2020, he has worked as a U.S. college volleyball recruiter, helping international student-athletes secure athletic scholarships while sharing his passion and experience for the sport

Ron runs tours for Bring It Promotions in the Netherlands and serves as the liaison between BIP and our partner, Let’s Keep The Ball Flying. With his help we are able to work with LKTBF and use volleyball to ignite positive impact, creating vibrant communities and inspiring a global movement of passionate players and fans.

Ricardo Araujo

Volleyball has taken Ricardo Araujo around the world. As a proud member of Team Mexico, he represented his country in international tournaments, including two World Cups in Ankara (2013) and Dubai (2015). Those experiences fueled his love for the game and shaped the way he approaches both playing and coaching.

After completing a degree in International Business, Ricardo moved to California, where he spent five years on the court as both a coach and beach volleyball player. His time there deepened his passion for developing athletes and competing at a high level.

Ricardo is now based in Rome where he continues to compete and coach beach volleyball, sharing his experience with the next generation of players. He also earned a Master’s in Sports and Lifestyle Management and is now in his third year working with Bring It Promotions, combining his professional skills with his lifelong love for the sport.”

Giorgia Vaschetti

Giorgia Vaschetti was born in 2003 in Carmagnola, Italy. Growing up, she practiced several sports before ultimately discovering her passion for volleyball at the age of 13. By 16, she was competing in the B2 Italian National Championship and participating in the U16 and U18 categories.

After completing high school in Italy, Giorgia chose to pursue both academics and athletics in the United States. In 2022, she moved to New Jersey to play NCAA Division I volleyball for Fairleigh Dickinson University while studying International Business. During her freshman year, she helped the program win the NEC Conference Championship. That year, they also competed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Giorgia is fluent in Italian and English and is currently learning Spanish.

Alessia Gallo

Alessia was born in Milan, Italy and started playing volleyball at 5 years old. After several years playing in level C, at 15 she was pulled up to compete in the u16 and u18 Divisions. By 16, she was playing in the B1 Italian National Championship u18 series. In 2018, she participated in the Provincial Selection, representing Milan-Monza-Lecco. During 2022, she participated in the under 18 Beach Volleyball Championship for the region.

In the summer of 2022, Alessia moved to New York to play for Monroe College. In 2024, she transferred to play for Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Currently she is a Business Management Major.

Alessia is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese, and conversational in Spanish.

Ai Kurokawa

Ai was born and raised in Chiba, Japan and moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2012 to study and start working as a nurse since 2015. In 2017, she had the opportunity to move to Sydney Australia to study at the Sydney College of English in their  Health professions and Medical program. While she was there, she worked as a tour guide for Japanese groups in Australia and improve her English working in the customer service industry for various companies.

In 2018, she went back to Japan after her program was complete and worked as a tour guide for English speaking tourists in Central and Mt. Fuji regions of Japan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she relied again on her nursing background and was a Health Consultant for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. During this role, she was managing director for one of many a medical sites that work directly with the Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

During her free time, Ai enjoys personal travel, over 20 nations and counting; dancing, going to the movies and spending time with friends over coffee. We are happy to have Ai assisting Marie Sasaki with all of our American university tour in Japan.

Christiana Gerostergiou

Christiana Gerostergiou is our Greek Coordinator, she is 30 years old and has been running tours nearly a decade for BIP. Born and raised in Greece until she decided to pursue her studies in the United States, getting a full scholarship to play basketball.

She attended University of Maine as a freshman and a sophomore and then transferred to Vanguard University in Costa Mesa. In So Cal, she met a lot of wonderful people and one of the was Tim Kelly and his family.

She graduated in 2018 with a BA in psychology and then decided to follow her dream and play as a pro back in Greece, whilst running tours in the summer. During those years, she also got her masters in clinical psychology and graduated in 2023. A year later she got her license to practice as a mental health counselor, which she loves and also runs tours during the year.