Magical Season Ends

Seminoles fall to UCLA in three sets in the NCAA National Semifinals

12/15/2011

Watts Earns National Award

Fourth-year associate head coach at FSU named AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year after guiding the Seminoles to the NCAA national semifinals as the team's middle blockers coach

Gokhan Yilmaz is heading into his fifth season at Florida State after joining the staff in 2008 following two seasons as an assistant coach for the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks under current FSU coach Chris Poole.

Yilmaz's primary role is the team's training coordinator where he is in charge of the day-to-day training while working to enhance the skills of all players. Yilmaz has also taken on an expanded recruiting role to help establish Seminole volleyball at the regional, national and international level.

Yilmaz played a significant part in FSU volleyball's historic 2011 season in which it reached its first NCAA national semifinal in the school's 44-year history. Yilmaz has proven to be an extremely effective instructor in drawing up match plans for the opposition, which is part of his daily teachings to his student-athletes. The knowledgeable assistant coach's strategies for scouting the opposition, teaching the fundamentals to his team and motivating his student-athletes has made him a tremendous asset to the FSU coaching staff.

In 2011, Yilmaz helped several FSU players fulfill their individual goals. Outside hitter Jekaterina Stepanova became just the second non-honorable mention All-American in school history by earning AVCA Second-Team honors, while Visnja Djurdjevic joined Ashley Neff in earning AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors. In addition, three Seminoles in Neff, Djurdjevic and Stepanova made the All-ACC Team while freshman setter Sarah Wickstrom was an all-conference freshman.

In the recruiting realm, Yilmaz helped make an enormous splash with the signing of four players ranked in the Top 53 of the PrepVolleyball.com senior class rankings. The standout athletes include middle blockers Sarah Burrington and Mara Green and outside hitters Nicole Walch and Leah Mikesky.

His efforts have been rewarded with a strong 2009 recruiting class that included two National Team-level players from his home country of Turkey and an up-and-coming middle blocker from California. Outside hitter Fatma Yildirim and setter Duygu Duzceler made the transition to American volleyball from Turkey and became key contributors as true freshman in 2009 with Yildirim even earning ACC All-Freshman team honors. Sareea Freeman has also made great strides in her first three years after playing behind veteran stars Brianna Barry and Jordana Price in 2009.

As for the 2010 recruiting class, Yilmaz once again landed a group of talented prospects that continue to push the program to new heights. In addition to Americans Ashley Neff and Katie Mosher, Yilmaz helped in the signing of junior college All-American transfers Jekatarina Stepanova (Riga, Latvia) and Patricia Figueiredo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) from Missouri State University-West Plains.

Both JUCO transfers aided the Seminoles tremendously in a return run to the NCAA Championship.

Yilmaz continued his splendid recruiting efforts for the 2011 season by helping land standout setter Wickstrom of Stuart, Fla, who is an All-ACC freshman.

Yilmaz had a busy spring in 2009 after being selected as an assistant coach for the Florida Region Girls Junior National Team. This allowed him to make inroads in the Florida recruiting base and gave him a chance to work with plenty of young talent.

While at Arkansas with Poole and FSU associate head coach Holly Watts, Yilmaz went to work on re-energizing practices as the training coordinator for the Lady Razorbacks. He was also involved with recruiting by making trips both nationally and internationally to spread the Lady Razorbacks' name.

Yilmaz's first exposure to Arkansas came in the spring of 2005 when he worked with the Lady Razorbacks as a volunteer coach. Prior to Arkansas, Yilmaz was at Northwood, where he helped the Timberwolves to a regional semifinal in 2005 with a 23-11 overall record. They were conference runners-up with a 14-4 mark that same season. Northwood was 16-11 and had three players selected to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic all-conference team in 2006.

Also at Northwood, Yilmaz coached a first team All-American and Regional Player of the Year in Gorana Maricic, as well as four other All-Conference players. Yilmaz was also in charge of camps, recruiting and training for the Timberwolves.

Yilmaz got his coaching start in the United States as an assistant at Cameron University from 2003 to 2004 and at Western New Mexico from 2002 to 2003. Before coming to the states, Yilmaz worked for various club programs in Istanbul, Turkey, as well as with the Turkish National Team. While working with the Turkish National Team, Yilmaz guided multiple age groups to eight National Titles. He also worked with the Turkish Junior National Team during the 1999 and 2000 seasons. He has also worked with national team coaches from Cuba, Russia and Bulgaria, assisting in their practices and working in the physical training aspect of the game.

Yilmaz received his bachelor's degree in European Studies in 2002 from Istanbul University and completed his master's degree in Sports Psychology while coaching at Cameron in 2005.