Debby ColbergTitle: Head Coach Experience: 32nd Year Alma Mater: Sacramento State, '70 Email:dcolberg@csus.edu Bio:
After 31 years at Sacramento State which include 799 victories, two national titles, 19 NCAA Tournament appearances, 17 conference championships and 15 coach of the year awards, head coach Debby Colberg announced in August that the 2007 season will mark the end of her illustrious career.
Currently fourth among active Div. I coaches with a 799-284 record (.738 winning percentage), Colberg has coached just two losing squads during her 31-year tenure and her teams have averaged 25.8 wins per season during that span.
The coach with the best career winning percentage in any sport at Sacramento State, Colberg begins her 17th season as a Division I coach. The long coaching sojourn has taken Colberg through the ranks, from AIAW play (1976-80), through Division II (1981-90) and currently Division I (1991-pres.).
She has led Sacramento State to winning seasons in 15 of the 16 Division I years, and has compiled a 379-166 (.695) record over that span. That includes five straight and nine NCAA Div. I Tournament appearances in the last 10 years (1997-00, 2002-06). The Hornets have now rattled off 12 consecutive 20-win seasons and 26 overall seasons with at least 20 victories.
The recipient of 15 coach of the year awards (one national, four regional and 10 conference), Colberg also had the added responsibility of serving as Sacramento State’s Athletics Director, a position she held from February of 1999 until June of 2002.
Since the program joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996, Colberg has led the Hornets to seven regular season titles (1997-01, 2005-06) and eight conference tournament crowns (1997-98, 2000, 2002-06). For her efforts, she has been named the Big Sky Coach of the Year seven times in the last 10 years.
The program has posted a 139-27 conference record since becoming a member of the Big Sky, easily the best winning percentage (.837) among the league’s nine teams over that span. In addition, Sacramento State has placed at least four players on the all-conference team each of the last nine years, including Big Sky MVPs in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005.
Last year, the Hornets went 30-6 overall, 15-1 in the Big Sky, and had three first team all-conference selections (middle hitters Lindsay Haupt and Michelle Franz, and outside hitter Atlee Hubbard) and one second team selection (libero Kristin Lutes). Moreover, the Hornets have not lost a Big Sky regular-season home match since 1999, a span of 55 consecutive victories on the home floor.
In addition to her teams consistently being successful on the floor, Colberg's teams have also shown impressively in the classroom. In fact, at least three Sacramento State players have been named to the Big Sky Conference All-Academic team each year since joining the league. Nine members of the team received at least a 3.0 gpa during this past spring semester and six of those student-athletes had gpa's of 3.5 or better.
Colberg has been honored 10 times as a league coach of the year in addition to being selected NCAA Northwest Region Coach of the Year four times. She was the 1989 AVCA Div. II National Coach of the Year, and also served as a head coach at the 1981 National Sports Festival, leading the West team to a gold medal.
Besides being just one victory shy of becoming the fourth active Div. I coach with 800 wins, she is currently 16th among active coaches in winning percentage. The team has increased its win total each of the four years from 23 in 2003, 25 in 2004, 26 in 2005, and 30 last season.
The only time in the last 10 years that Sacramento State did not reach the NCAA Tournament was 2001, when the team was upset by Eastern Washington in the Big Sky Tournament championship match.
No matter what division the Hornets have been a part of over the years, the team consistently has reached the NCAA Tournament. In fact, during the Div. II era (1981-90), the team had five top five finishes while reaching the Final Four in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1989. That included a national championship in 1981 and a national runner-up finish in 1989. The 1981 championship was the second national crown in as many years for Sacramento State volleyball as the team won the AIAW Div. II national crown in 1980 (the NCAA did not sanction women's sports until 1981).
During the Div. I era, the Hornets have been a victim of their proximity on the West Coast, as the team has repeatedly had to play some of the toughest teams in the nation in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In fact, Sacramento State has opened the tournament at volleyball powerhouse Stanford three times in the last five years (2002-03, 2006). The other two years saw the Hornets play Santa Clara (2005) and Saint Mary's (2004) in the first round. Santa Clara finished the season ranked fourth in the nation in 2005, and Saint Mary's was ranked 13th in 2004.
Sacramento State was able to get out of the first round of the Big Dance in 1998 after sweeping Houston in the first round. Unfortunately, the team had to play 10th-ranked Pacific in Stockton in the second round where the Hornets eventually lost.
Prior to the current run of NCAA Tournament appearances, the Hornets’ 1992 National Invitational Volleyball Championships appearance marked the first postseason competition ever by a Sacramento State athletics team in the Division I era (1991-pres.).
Colberg began her teaching and coaching career shortly after graduation from Sacramento State in 1970. She received her teaching credential in 1971, then taught part-time for one year before spending the next four years teaching and coaching at Churchill Intermediate School in the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento. In 1975, she was hired to coach varsity volleyball at Rio Americano High School. She spent three years there and led her teams to three league championships and a pair of section titles. She began her coaching career at Sacramento State in 1976 while still at Rio Americano High School. Her first two years at Sacramento State, she doubled as volleyball coach at both schools.
Her accomplishments have not gone unnoticed on the local or national scene. The Collegiate Volleyball Update magazine featured her in the 2004 fall preview issue. Sacramento Magazine featured her in a 1990 fall issue, and she was featured in a cover story in the October/November 1989 issue of Coaching Volleyball. She also received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award and Outstanding Alumni Award from the University, and is a former member of the Sacramento State Athletic Advisory Board and the Sacramento State Faculty Senate.
Colberg graduated from Sacramento State with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1970. A student-athlete herself, Colberg was a member of the inaugural volleyball, women’s basketball and softball teams at Sacramento State. She continued her education, earning a master’s degree in physical education in 1977.
She and her husband, Gary, have a 23-year old son, Casey. Gary was an internationally certified volleyball official who officiated several international competitions, including the 1984 Olympic Games, the Goodwill Games in Moscow and Seattle, and the 1991 NORCECA Championships in Canada. He was also in charge of coordinating all officials for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Debby Colberg
