Leadership Team
Nikki Mabrey
Director of Volleyball
Nikki Mabrey grew up in Hawaii and moved to Virginia her freshman year of High School. She played Varsity Volleyball all four years as a Middle Blocker at Battlefield High School. With many D1 offers on the table, she decided to take a full scholarship for Volleyball & Track & Field at Virginia State University. She was the starting Outside Hitter all 4 years, captain 3 of those years, MVP and made the CIAA All Conference Team her senior year.
After graduating, Nikki began her coaching career at Flint Hill where she was the JV Head Coach and Varsity Assistant coach for three years. Each season, she led the Huskies to an undefeated, first place, conference finish. She has been coaching club for 10 years and has coached every age group at the club level. Each year, she has led her team to a top 3 regional finish and qualified for USAV Nationals consistently.
Her coaching philosophy is simple: Better the athlete. Volleyball is more than just getting better on the court. As a coach, she believes in helping athletes grow as people and players. She believes in training the whole athlete. Her philosophy focuses on being disciplined, building confidence, competition, and resilience which will ultimately make them better players on and off the court.
Nikki is in her second year as Director at The St. James. Under her tutelage, The St. James has been able to add several teams this year, opening spots for many athletes in the area to learn and thrive at a high level. She is looking forward to working with all the athletes new and old coming into The St. James this season.
Nick Collins
Assistant Director of Volleyball/Recruiting Coordinator
Nick Collins began his playing career at NVVA playing outside hitter and libero. His team qualified for nationals twice in 2010 and 2011, finishing 17th on both occasions. He was recruited to play at Rutgers University where he played two years of DI volleyball and two years of DIII as the program transitioned to a new conference. There, he played outside hitter and libero and helped the team come in 5th in the nation two years running at the NCAA Tournament.
Nick is going into his 9th season coaching club volleyball and 6th season with The St. James. This past season, Nick head coached Boys 18 Navy to a 13th place silver bracket finish at Boys Open AAU Nationals and a 9th place gold bracket finish at SoCal Cup The Showcase. Three players went on to play at the DI level with 2 more moving on to play DIII. His teams have had 3 players train with the U16/U19 National Teams and 3 with NTDP beach. Nick was also recognized as a 2024 AVCA 30 under 30 award winner this past fall.
Additionally, Nick is going into his fourth season as an assistant coach at George Mason University for the men’s DI volleyball program. Apart from coaching, he serves as the primary statistician doing DataVolley for the team during matches. Nick also spent two years as head coach for the varsity volleyball program at Robinson High School in Fairfax, VA. In his two seasons, he led the Rams to a 30-2 conference record, coached eight all-district players and five all-region players, and one all-state player as the team made States for the first time in almost 20 years. Nick currently is head coach for Robinson Boys Varsity Volleyball in their inaugural season of play.
Nick is also going into his 3rd season in leadership making the shift up to Assistant Director of Volleyball. His primary goals are player development, coach’s training, travel management for the club season, and serving as the club’s recruiting coordinator. In the past two years, St. James has had it’s most successful stretch with 3 Gold Bracket finishes at AAU Open Nationals, 4 silver bracket finishes at AAU Open Nationals, and a CHRVA region record 5th place finish for the Boys 18’s team in the 2022-2023 season.