Two familiar faces roam the hallways of Bohler Gym.

One face, Washington State University Head Volleyball Coach Jen Greeny, has returned to the hardwood, this time on the coach’s side of the net. Another just down the road, Cougar Assistant Coach Burdette Greeny, used to pitch for the WSU baseball team.

Jen Greeny, then Jennifer Stinson, was a member of the WSU volleyball team from 1996-99. She became the seventh player in school history to record 1,000 career kills and earned three All-Pacific-10 Conference honors.

In 1997, Burdette Greeny arrived in Pullman from Tacoma Community College to pitch for the Cougars, spending one year on the mound for WSU before signing with the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 1998 draft.

College athletes tend to spend a lot of time together, so it would not be surprising that Jen and Burdette knew each other; in fact, the two often joke that they met in the weight room.

But the story of their relationship’s start is a little more complex and funny.

“I actually tried to set (WSU Assistant Coach) Shannon (Hunt) and Burdette up, and that didn’t work out, which I guess is good for me,” Jen said. “She was dating someone else at the time and they had broken up, and I just thought Burdette would be a good match.”

Jen and Shannon shared the court in Bohler for two years, including during the team’s 1996 Elite Eight appearance.

While Jen’s matchmaking venture didn’t work out as planned, she ended up dating Burdette, and it didn’t take long for the relationship to become serious.

“Within two weeks we had these thoughts that, ‘This could be marriage type stuff,’” Burdette said.

The year the two spent together on campus was at a point when WSU volleyball was one of the premier attractions in town; the Cougars were coming off an appearance in the Elite Eight in 1996 and were on their way to a sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in seven years.

“The place was packed all the time and teams did not want to come into (Bohler),” Burdette said.

In fact, one of those instances is Jen’s favorite memory from her time as a Cougar athlete.

“My sophomore year we went undefeated at home in Bohler Gym,” Jen said. “We beat Stanford, who was ranked No. 1 at the time, and the fire marshal had to block the door and couldn’t let any more people in. People were looking in through the doors. I just think that the atmosphere of every home match is my favorite memory.”

After ending their careers as athletes, Jen and Burdette both went immediately into coaching.

Jen went to Spokane to teach and coach briefly before returning to Pullman as an assistant coach under Cindy Fredrick for more than four years. Burdette spent seven years after his brief stint in minor league baseball coaching the Pullman American Legion Baseball program.

In 2007 the two headed to Lewis-Clark State College after Jen had spent three successful years as the head volleyball coach at Pullman High School.

Making the transition from coaching baseball to volleyball worked out well for Burdette, and he used his strengths as a player manager to contribute while he learned the game.

“It has worked out extremely well,” Jen said. “Both of us, there’s strengths and weaknesses. He really likes recruiting, me not so much, and he’s really good at it. So it’s nice that we can work off our strengths and weaknesses.”

After four years at LCSC, in which the Greenys carried a .824 winning percentage, WSU made an offer to take over the Cougar program. It was an offer they couldn’t pass up.

“This is, I would say for us, our dream job,” Jen said. “This is the pinnacle of where we want to be.”