Concordia University Chicago Volleyball
Head Coach Kathy Gebhardt

Kathy Gebhardt begins her eighth season as head coach of Concordia's volleyball Cougars. She is also in her third year as Senior Woman Administrator at Concordia.

Gebhardt has led the Cougar volleyball program to 109 match victories during her tenure, second only to Mara Schmidt whom Gebhardt (then Kathy Krohe) played for in the mid-1990s. She has led the Cougars to a 71-51 record since 2006 and three top-three finishes in the first four seasons of the Northern Athletics Conference.

Gebhardt has guided the careers of many excellent veteran players in recent years including four seniors from the 2009 team. Her 2010 team will rely heavily on a predominantly junior class, but Gebhardt embraces the challenge of coaching this particular group of players. "We will change certain things in order to fit the style and play to the strengths of our key players, but I feel very positive that this group and especially our juniors will make the transition from playing supportive roles to becoming the main focus of this year's team."

While Gebhardt has a reputation for putting highly competitive and talented teams on the floor, she also takes pride in mentoring the overall development of her players. "One of the greatest joys I get from coaching is seeing our players mature into confident young women with set goals and a strong life's purpose." Gebhardt could point to two of her former players, Katie Kloess ('09) and Alex Pinotti ('10) as examples; both have won the A.W. Gross award, Concordia's highest honor for student-athletes, and both are now sharing their experiences with current student-athletes as assistant coaches (Pinotti with volleyball, Kloess with track).

Gebhardt graduated Concordia in 1996 after a spectacular three-year career in which she earned two consecutive NIIC Player of the Year honors. She was a member of the 1995 team that compiled a perfect 10-0 conference record en route to Concordia's last NIIC title. Gebhardt continues to hold Concordia's kill record for a match (34), and she is second in career kills with 1188. Her success as a player and coach led to her selection to the Concordia Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.

Gebhardt graduated Concordia with a B.A. in elementary education and earned her M.S. in sports management at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota in May of 2003. She and her husband Shane are parents of Trey, an eight-year-old boy that they adopted from Russia in 2008.