Downingtown East Volleyball Coaching Staff

Coach Dankanich starting coaching at East in 2021. Before coaching at East, Coach Dankanich was an assistant head coach for the boys volleyball team at South Windsor High School in South Windsor, Connecticut, coached the JV girls volleyball team at Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut, and served as head coach for both the boys and girls 18u teams at the Husky Volleyball club. She continues to play in a high level women's league in Plymouth Meeting and plays grass doubles in the summer. 

Coach Dankanich has coached both the boys and girls varsity teams at Downingtown East, but moved to just coaching the girls team for the 2025 year. She also coaches club volleyball for Royal Legends Volleyball Club.

Coach Dankanich's goal is to teach players the mental game as well as the physical game of volleyball. She is working to develop players who are hard workers, play strategically, support their teammates, and are good people on and off the court.

College Level Athletics 

Member of the Millersville Women’s Volleyball Team 2003-2004

•  Co-Captain, 2004 
• Played Outside Hitter 
• Named Millersville University’s Most Inspiring Athlete of 2004-2005
• All-PSAC East Second Team (2004) 
• AVCA All-Atlantic Region Honorable Mention (2003 and 2004) 
• Led the team in kills and digs (2003 and 2004) 
• 5th all-time digs in Millersville Volleyball History for a season (2004)
• Featured in the article Celebrating 30 players in 30 years  

Member of the Juniata College Women’s Volleyball Team, 2001-2003

• Played Outside Hitter and Libero 

 Grant Shieh just recently became a new member of the Downingtown family, as a social studies teacher at Lionville Middle School. He loves experiencing the outdoors, playing beach volleyball and hanging out with friends. Traveling has always been a passion of his, as he is very grateful to have gotten a chance to visit almost every national park in the country!  Growing up in Bucks County, he played four years of volleyball as a Libero for Council Rock North High School. After, he attended Temple University getting his degree in Secondary Education and graduating in 2022. There he enjoyed playing club volleyball, meeting new people and exploring Philadelphia with his older brother. 

Coach Shieh served as the JV coach for the boys and girls teams at Council Rock North before coming to East. 

Currently, you can catch him playing in adult leagues around the area, watching Philadelphia sports, and enjoying being a new teacher! He cannot wait to meet everybody and kick off the season! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at gshieh@dasd.org.  

  This is Coach Lindsay's second year coaching volleyball at DEHS. She is also an assistant coach for Sparks Volleyball Club. She played libero for DEHS from 2009 to 2013, leading the team in digs and aces. Coach Lindsay enjoys playing volleyball on the beach and indoor with friends. Coach Lindsay's goal is to support hard-working athletes with good attitudes while we practice skills and strategies on the court. Coach Lindsay teaches Kindergarten at Beaver Creek Elementary. 

Coach Ed started volunteering at Downingtown East in 2021 as well. Coach Ed was also a multi-sport athlete in high school and started playing volleyball as a 9th grader after being cut from the baseball team. He grew to love volleyball and was thankful that when one door closed, another door opened. Coach Ed played club volleyball at Penn State University and continues to play indoor 6s and outdoor doubles. 

Before coaching at East, Coach Ed was the head boys volleyball coach at South Windsor High School in South Windsor, Connecticut and a head coach for the boys and girls 18u teams for the Husky Volleyball Club. Coach Dankanich can be seen coaching his three children's soccer, basketball, baseball and softball teams as well, in addition to helping with the boys volleyball team at East.