Coach Pohlman will begin his fourth year at the helm of the Dodge City women’s volleyball program. Pohlman was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho where he attended the College of Southern Idaho and Idaho State University. He earned his Associates of Arts Degree in Sign Language and Deaf Studies from CSI in 2003. In 2005, Pohlman completed his Bachelors of Science degree in Educational Interpreting in Sign Language. Pohlman’s range of experience in volleyball as a player and as a coach started from recreational volleyball with his late-father, John Pohlman. It’s been seven years since that time and Coach Pohlman has studied the game very intrinsically at all facets of the sport. After his recreational experience, he joined the Idaho State Men’s Volleyball Club as a setter, starting his first year. The following year, he took the reins as the President of the ISU Men’s Volleyball Club where he led his club team to a reputable finish as the Bronze National Champions and chalked up the honor as Second Team All-Conference as a setter in 2005.
Upon graduating and landing a job as a sign language interpreter at Filer High School in Idaho, Coach Pohlman found his true calling; coaching. Starting as the 7th grade head coach and assistant varsity coach, he soon found himself developing his own USA Volleyball club from the ground up only a year and a half later to compete in the Intermountain Volleyball Region. That wasn’t until after he ran the spring volleyball program for Filer, set up and ran a traveling volleyball club within the school district while coaching the 14 and under team, took a 16 and under team to the volleyball festival in Reno, assisted the varsity at the UVSC team camp, and finished coaching the 8th grade school team in the fall of '06. His club, Southern Idaho Volleyball Club, started with six staff members, two teams, and 18 players last fall, and by the time the season ended the first week in July, the club had over 45 players and five teams. The club traveled to Utah, Boise, Treasure Valley, and Reno to compete. Serving as not only the Co-Director of the club, but as a coach, he assisted the 14 and under team as well as head coached the 18 and under team.
Since his arrival in July of '07, Coach Pohlman has already helped develop volleyball in the Dodge City area. He coached for the local area volleyball club, the Western Kansas Six Shooters 18 team. With the Six Shooters, the team compiled a 48-16 HOA region record with three 1st place finishes and two 2nd place finishes. The team started as a 14th seed in the Silver Division. Soon, Coach Pohlman found his team as the top seed, so they moved to the Gold division. By the end of the year, his team placed 9th at the Gold Regional Tournament while chalking up a 22nd seed ranking! For the 2nd year, Coach Pohlman ran a 12 and under camp, and will continue to develop athletes from this age group as he claims, "The younger we start them, the more natural their ability will be. This area did not have anything like this, but that has changed. We went from 20 girls in 2008 to 50 girls this year!"
For the 2008 season, Coach Pohlman earned honors as Co-Coach of the Year in the Jayhawk conference. "I'm not sure I'm deserving of that award. There were teams better than us in the conference. I am sure people voted for Pat (Pratt CC Coach) and I because we were Division II in 2007, then moved up to Division I in 2008, and we did fairly well throughout the transition; Pat's team more so than mine. Considering we (DC3) were dead last in Division II and finished out in the middle of Division I, I can say that I am satisfied with what we were able to accomplish." Under Pohlman's direction, three athletes also earned honors as 2nd Team All-Conference in the Jayhawk Conference as well as one player earning Player of the Week.
Coach Pohlman states that he lives, eats, and breathes volleyball and claims he is a student of the game and always will be. Since the start of his coaching career, Coach Pohlman has attended numerous coaching clinics and is currently IMPACT and CAP Level I certified by USA Volleyball.
In January, Shaun, and his wife, Megan had a new arrival to the family with their first son, Kesh. They also have two dogs, "Conq" and "Diva."