Lake Superior

Zac Rambo, who was hired in January 2022, enters his second season as head coach of the Laker women's volleyball team. 

In his first season with the program, Rambo guided the team to a 5-25 overall record and a 4-14 mark in GLIAC play, propelling the program to its first earned GLIAC Tournament appearence (excludes seasons in which all GLIAC members automatically receive a bid to the GLIAC tournament). Despite the record, the team continued to prove that they were better than it showed, pushing opponents to the brink in several sets, reaching scores of 23-23 on countless occasions. Rambo helped coach Emily Kalinowski to earning Second Team All-GLIAC honors after recording 993 assists on the season, the six highest single-season mark in program history.

Rambo joined the Lakers after spending the previous three years with the Pratt Community College women’s volleyball program in Pratt, Kansas. Rambo served as an assistant coach during the 2018 season and has been the team’s head coach for the last three seasons. During his tenure as head coach, Rambo elevated the team’s national rankings in various statistical categories including  blocking, serve receive and aces by over 45 programs. Rambo’s most recent season leading Pratt included 11 wins, which marked the program’s highest win total since the 2018 season. Under Rambo’s guidance, four student-athletes received all-conference honors and the team had a 90% graduation/placement rate. Academically, Rambo’s teams performed very well as 16 players were named NJCAA Academic All-Americans and all three seasons the team was recognized as AVCA All-Academic teams. 

Prior to Pratt, Rambo spent four seasons as an assistant coach and the director of recruiting for the women’s volleyball program at Friends University in Wichita, Kan. During his time at Friends University, Rambo oversaw over 150 recruits and trained two top-30 blocking teams. Rambo, who was a member of the coaching staff that led multiple All-Americans, also assisted with scheduling and maintaining the team’s budget. 

From 2016 to 2019, Rambo served as the head coach of two club programs: the Shockwave Volleyball Academy, a U17 premiere team, and Air Capital Aces, a U18 premiere team. The pair of teams had a 90% placement rate for players into college programs. 

In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Rambo has been consistently involved in the volleyball communities at each of his previous stops. While at Friends University, Rambo was fundamental to the creation of Wichita’s YMCA Sand Volleyball Club Program (2017) and would serve as the program’s lead from 2017 to 2018. In addition, Rambo ran Wichita’s YMCA volleyball summer youth program multiple times from 2016 to 2021. 

Before his coaching career began, Rambo joined the United States Air Force and played volleyball for the Al Udeid Armed Forces Team. Rambo was selected to play for the Air Force Team on two separate occasions but was unable to compete as a result of his conflicting active duty service. Rambo served as an Inflight Refueling Specialist for the U.S. Air Force from 2010 through 2016 and completed seven deployments during his military career. 

A native of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Rambo graduated from Friends University in May 2019 with a degree in organizational leadership and transformational change (change management). Rambo currently resides in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.