SUNY Cortland Athletics

One of college’s all-time premier volleyball coaches, Joan Sitterly established a dynasty in her 22 years as Cortland’s head coach before translating that success into guiding Cortland’s elite NCAA Div. intercollegiate athletics program from 2004 until her retirement in 2010.

Sitterly, who joined the Cortland physical education faculty in 1983, coached the women’s volleyball program to a phenomenal 816-234 record between 1983 and 2004, when she became only the second coach in Div. III women’s volleyball history to reach 800 career wins. Her Cortland teams qualified for the NCAA Div. III Tournament in 18 of her last 20 seasons, while capturing 13 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) titles and the SUNYAC East Division championship every year between 1985-2001.

A seven-time SUNYAC Coach of the Year, Sitterly also was voted the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Regional Coach of the Year on seven occasions. Promoted to assistant professor in 1990 and associate professor in 1998, Sitterly was interim athletics director in 2000-01 and in 2003-04 before she was appointed to the full-time position.

As Cortland’s athletics director, Sitterly oversaw a 25-sport program that perennially ranked among the most successful in the nation. Under her watch, Cortland remained just one of six colleges among more than 400 in NCAA Div. III to annually finish in the top 20 of the all-sports National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Directors’ Cup. Cortland finished third in 2006-07 and fifth in both 2005-06 and 2008-09.

Sitterly, as executive director of the SUNY Cortland C-Club, was a catalyst for the construction of the C-Club Pavilion, refurbishing the C-Club Wall of Fame in the Park Center Hall of Champions and the hosting of the Pre-Title IX Women’s Teams Reunion.

The SUNYAC president in 2006-07, Sitterly served on the NCAA’s Management Council, Women’s Volleyball Rules Committee and Div. III Championships Committee.

A Fairport, N.Y., native, she earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education from SUNY Brockport in 1974. She was a standout competitor in basketball, field hockey, lacrosse and tennis at Brockport, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.

Sitterly earned a master’s degree in 1979 from the University of Colorado, where she was a member of the 15-2 field hockey team that competed in the national tournament. She received a doctorate in education from Syracuse University in 1995.

From 1974-83, Sitterly taught physical education and was the head volleyball and basketball coach at Newark (N.Y.) High School. Her volleyball teams won five Finger Lakes League (FLL) championships and captured the 1982-83 Western New York championship. She won two FLL titles in basketball and was assistant track coach for the undefeated Newark track and field squad from 1982-84. She coordinated the Finger Lakes Volleyball League and served as chair of Section V Class A Basketball.

A U.S. Lacrosse official for girls and women’s lacrosse since 1974, Sitterly and her husband, Gary Miller, reside in North Carolina, where she remains active as a collegiate lacrosse official.

UPDATE - June 30, 2016: Sitterly was selected for induction into the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Hall of Fame (ceremony in December 2016).