Ulmer Leads UO Volleyball Into New Era
04/13/17 | Women's Beach Volleyball, Women's Volleyball, @GoDucksMoseley
Matt Ulmer takes over as head coach of the Oregon volleyball program after serving the last three years as an assistant.
When Matt Ulmer was 8 years old, his mother coached the varsity volleyball team at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill.
Among the team's standouts was Tamika Catchings, the four-time Olympic basketball gold medalist and 10-time WNBA All-Star. Even before earning those credentials, Catchings was an exceptional volleyball and basketball player – but that didn't stop the 8-year-old Ulmer from pulling her aside, he recalled recently, to review with her the nuances of the passing game in volleyball.
Earlier this spring, Ulmer was promoted to head coach at the University of Oregon, which caused him to reflect back on earlier experiences such as Catchings' polite indulgence of his precociousness at 8.
"She was looking at me like, 'Who's this?'" Ulmer recalled with a laugh. "I think my whole life I've been around volleyball, and working up to whenever this opportunity would come."
Ulmer, 32, spent the last three seasons as an assistant to former head coach Jim Moore, serving in the fall of 2016 as associate head coach. He was promoted to head coach and given a one-year contract at Oregon after Moore stepped down from the position in March.
Since then, Ulmer has worked to establish his own voice with the returning roster, reassure alumni, recruits and fans that the program remains on a positive trajectory, and navigate a spring schedule of matches on the beach and exhibitions indoors with an eye toward the 2017 indoor season.
"Hopefully my passion for the sport and for these young women, you feel it, and our fans will feel it," Ulmer said this week. "I know the team does. I just want to carry that (forward), and continue to teach them, and have a good learning environment for us to get better every day."
Ulmer is a former setter at Carthage College who earned first-team Division-III all-America status as a senior, and led the team to a pair of national championship matches. He was also an assistant coach with the women's club team before earning his undergraduate degree in 2006, and remained at Carthage to earn his master's of education in 2008.
Ulmer then spent seven seasons at Long Beach State, five as a full-time assistant. Among his duties was serving as head coach of the beach volleyball team, which Ulmer led to the NCAA championship in 2013 – becoming the youngest ever title-winning volleyball coach in NCAA history, indoor or outdoor, among men's and women's programs.
That experience is particularly valuable as Ulmer takes over a UO beach team in its fourth season of existence, and works to establish his voice as a head coach with the program.
"I think they're relying on my voice more out there, and we're developing a better relationship of who I am as a head coach, because they maybe don't know as much," Ulmer said. "So that's maybe been good timing for us."
The academic calendar also may have come at a good time during the coaching transition. After Moore stepped down in mid-March, finals week and then spring break followed soon after. Players returned to campus for the start of the spring quarter on April 3, and for the start of Oregon volleyball's new era under Ulmer.
"I think it's been a good time for them to get away and kind of get everything together, and come back," Ulmer said. "They're refreshed and ready to go."
The Ducks are moving on without libero Amanda Benson and hitter Kacey Nady. But they return a deep, experienced roster led by setters Maggie Scott and August Raskie, hitters Taylor Agost and Lindsey Vander Weide, and the super sophomore class of Willow Johnson, Brooke Van Sickle, Jolie Rasmussen and Ronika Stone.
Ulmer was instrumental in recruiting that talent to Eugene, serving as recruiting coordinator while an assistant. Now he gets the chance to lead them onto the court, and build on a progression that included an NCAA Tournament first-round appearance in 2015, and then a second-round appearance in 2016.
"I think the team's excited for the opportunity," Ulmer said. "It's their time to step up."
Soon, Ulmer's staff will be finalized and announced. He said the outreach when he took over the head job was "overwhelming," from both prospective assistants and his contacts in the recruiting world.
"My first week, it felt like everyone in the volleyball community wanted to be in the program," Ulmer said.
That program is his program now, one he intends to share ownership of with the program's alumni, players and fans alike.
"I love being a Duck, and love working with the young women on this team," Ulmer said. "My family and I love living in Eugene and being a part of this community. I'd like to say thank you to (UO senior administrators) Rob Mullens and Lisa Peterson for giving me the opportunity to do what I love, where I love."
Players Mentioned
