Marshall Women’s Basketball Coach Juli Fulks announced the finalized coaching staff for her first season at the helm of the Thundering Herd on Tuesday.
Fulks’ additions for the 2024-25 staff includes assistant coaches Stephanie Gehlhausen, Sacha Santimano and Mykasa Robinson.
“One of the most important tasks a head coach has is putting together a group of coaches who are committed to the wholistic growth of our student-athletes,” Fulks said. “This group is a collection of professionals who value success both on and off the court, and we are excited to represent the future of Herd Women’s Basketball.”
Each addition keeps with the theme of Fulks’ success, which has been the defensive side of the basketball where her team at Transylvania led all divisions in scoring defense for the 2023-24 season (43.6 points per game).
Gehlhausen comes to Marshall with head coaching experience after serving as Lander University’s head coach for the past two seasons where she led Lander to an 11-win turnaround from year one to year two while seeing the Team GPA improve from 2.9 when she arrived to 3.43 at the time of her exit.
Prior to her first season, Gehlhausen brought in 10 players to fill out the roster, which paid dividends in year two as the Bearcats produced the Peach Belt Conference’s 2023-24 Player of the Year and All-Region team member, as well as a Second-Team All-Peach Belt selection while making it into the top-10 in every NCAA Division II Region Poll.
Before leading the program at Lander, Gehlhausen spent four seasons as the associate head coach at Ashland University where she implemented Ashland’s defensive system, which helped lead the team to an undefeated 2019-20 season at 31-0. That season earned Gehlhausen the WBCA Division II National Assistant of the Year award.
Santimano joins the Herd from Army where she served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the last two seasons.
At West Point, Santimano’s primary role was coordinating the defense, which saw success in both seasons that she was at the helm. Last season, Army ranked in the top-5 in the Patriot League in steals (2nd), scoring defense (4th), opponent efficiency (4th), 3-point defense (4th) and combined rebounding (4th).
Santimano’s player development also included two All-Patriot League First Teamers, a pair of All-Patriot League Rookie Team selections, an All-Patriot League Second Team selection and the All-Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
Prior to her two years as an assistant, Santimano was a head coach at the Division III level, leading Bowdoin College for one season (2021-22) after serving as the head coach at Eastern Nazarene College for 10 seasons.
In addition to her coaching duties, Santimano served in the United States Air Force Reserves from 2004-12, specializing in medical logistics while earning the distinctions of Top Physically Fit Female, Honor Student in her graduating class and an AIT Honor Student.
Robinson, an Ashland, Kentucky native, returns to the Tri-State and joins the Thundering Herd staff after serving as a graduate assistant for Jeff Walz at the University of Louisville during the 2023-24 season.
Under Walz, Robinson worked in skill development for the Cardinals, specializing on the defensive end of the floor, while also serving as a mentor for student-athletes in dealing with responsibilities on the athletic and academic end.
As a player, Robinson holds the all-time Louisville record for games played with 162, which came over five seasons. In each of her five seasons, the Cardinals advanced to the Elite Eight and twice they advanced to the Final Four.
Robinson was a three-time ACC All-Defensive Team honoree and was named by ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel as a Top-12 Defensive Player in the NCAA.
Tagged with: Sun Belt
