Leanne Ulmer, Head Coach

Leanne Ulmer begins her ninth year as Carthage’s head women’s volleyball coach in 2009 (227-67, .772 winning percentage, 8 years, 12th in NCAA Division III thru 2007).  She also begins her eighth year as senior woman administrator in the Carthage athletic department in 2009.  Ulmer was named American Volleyball Coaches Association Midwest Regional “Coach of the Year” in both 2006 and 2007, and she is a four-time CCIW “Women’s Volleyball Coach of the Year (2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

Her .7397 winning percentage over six season ranks 13th among active NCAA Division III coaches entering the 2007-08 season.  Ulmer is ranked first all-time at Carthage in career wins (227) and first in winning percentage (.772).  She passed coach Diane Mizerka (190 wins, 1975-82)  with a victory over North Park University on Oct. 30 in the play-in match for the CCIW Women’s Volleyball Tournament.

A native of  San Bernardino, Cal., she served as head girls volleyball coach at Lincolnshire Stevenson High School from 1993-2000 (227-75-2, 8 years) and the boys volleyball coach from 1997-2000 (99-13, 4 years).  Ulmer had eight-consecutive 20-win seasons in girls volleyball and four 30-win campaigns, with three conference championships, five regional titles and two sectional championships.  Her 2000 boys team finished second in the Illinois High School Association championship after winning league, regional and sectional titles.  Ulmer has served as the co-director of the TNT Volleyball Club in Buffalo Grove, Ill., since 1995.

Ulmer received her bachelor’s in social relations from California-Riverside in 1979, where she played volleyball, basketball and softball.  Her 1979 volleyball team won an Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship, and Ulmer was inducted into that school’s athletic hall of fame in 1986.  Following a brief playing career in 1979 with the New York Stars of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, Ulmer returned to California-Riverside in 1981 as an assistant women’s basketball coach before becoming head coach for both girls volleyball and girls basketball at San Bernardino’s San Gorgonio High School from 1982-84.  She also played on the Women’s Professional Golf Association mini-tour from 1989-91.

Telephone: 262-551-6681

E-Mail: lulmer@carthage.edu

Sarah Busalacchi, Part-Time Assistant Coach

Sarah Busalacchi, formerly Sarah Johnson, begins her second year as a part-time assistant coach in 2009.  A native of Reedsville, Wis., Busalacchi was an all-state and a first-team All-Olympian Conference player at Reedsville High School in 2002.  She attended Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s in music.  Busalacchi is completing work on her master’s in education from Wisconsin-Whitewater where she served as a student assistant track and field coach in both 2007 and 2008.  She is currently a student teacher at both Jane Vernon Elementary School in the Kenosha Unified District and at Westosha Central High School in Salem, Wis.  Busalacchi married Joe Busalacchi, Carthage’s assistant men’s track and field coach, in September 2008.

Chris Nelson, Part-Time Assistant Coach

Chris Nelson begins his second year as a part-time assistant coach in 2009.  A  native of Racine, Wis., and a Horlick High School graduate, Nelson attended Loyola University (Ill.) and played two years of  volleyball for the Ramblers.  Nelson was voted the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association’s “rookie of the year” in 2005 and was part of MIVA-championship teams in both 2005 and 2006.  He graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s in Spanish.  In 2008, Nelson played professional volleyball in Spain before joining the Carthage men’s volleyball staff as  volunteer-assistant coach.