El Camino Union

Issue date: 5/21/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: FILIP JERZYCKE Sharkie Zartman has gone from being told she wasn't tall enough to winning a volleyball national championship.

As a young, skinny, undersized high school volleyball player, health professor and former volleyball coach Charleen 'Sharkie' Zartman was told by her coach that she was too small and suggested she should try another sport because she might not make it as a volleyball player.
That incident lit a fire under Zartman to be one of UCLA's top volleyball players of all time along with coaching EC to nine league championships and two state championships.
Zartman's work ethic might be as impressive as her volleyball resume, but she downplays it because she said it is all about hard work and being driven to be the best you can be.
"I've always been a fanatic," Zartman said. "In everything I do, I give it one hundred percent, because it all goes back to what my high school coach said when she told me I wouldn't make it. So here I am after all these years still motivated and focused to do other things."
As a member of UCLA's volleyball team, Zartman was part of the first National Championship team in 1972. She was also named one of the top 25 volleyball athletes of all time and UCLA also retired her No. 23 jersey.
"That 1972 group was so special," Zartman said. "They were a great group of individuals to work with and we all had fun, we were also very competitive. And on top of that to have my jersey retired and to be named among that list of top twenty-five greats was an honor."
After being honored and graduating from UCLA, Zartman went on to coach the EC women's volleyball team for ten years, winning the state championship in 1981 and 1983. Her most memorable year in coaching was when the Warriors won the championship in 1983; she was also pregnant with her second daughter, Chrissie.
That year was also her last year to coach as she focused on attending to the needs of her two daughters. It was not because she wanted to stop coaching, but because she believed that it was time to be a mother
"Coaching took up so much of my time, and my kids needed me," Zartman said. "I loved the girls on the team, I loved the championships we won, but I needed to get my priorities straight. And also, I believed they had to get someone that could give the energy required for the job, because at the time I didn't have the passion and energy anymore."

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