After four years on the Jackrabbit coaching staff as a student assistant coach, Jason Ruppelt returns to the Jackrabbit volleyball staff for a fifth season in 2011, his first a graduate assistant coach.

A Springfield, S.D., native, Ruppelt graduated from South Dakota State in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Math from the college of engineering, and immediately began pursuing a master of education degree in counseling and human resource development with specialization in administration and student affairs

Mostly a self-taught player, Ruppelt's interest in volleyball began in 2003, when he watched his sister play in high school, but it really sparked when he saw Nebraska play on television. From there, he started practicing on his own, and the more he played, the more he loved the game.

As a graduate assistant at SDSU, he assists the coaching staff in practice, match preparation and in day-to-day operations. In the offseason, Ruppelt started coaching the South Dakota Volleyball Club in 2008, and continues to do that along with teaching private lessons at Sioux Empire Fitness in Sioux Falls since 2010.