Katelyn Vara enters her 11th season as an assistant coach with the UW-Oshkosh women’s volleyball program in 2025.
With Vara on the sidelines, UW-Oshkosh has produced a 222-89 record, including a 41-23 mark in conference play. In 2016 UW-Oshkosh compiled a 28-8 record, earned a share of the WIAC championship and qualified for the NCAA Division III postseason tournament. In 2023 the Titans earned an at-large berth into the Division III Championship en route to finishing the campaign ranked fifth in the nation with a 37-2 record. In 2024 UW-Oshkosh once again capped the season ranked fifth in the country after going 29-6 overall, advancing to the national quarterfinals and winning the conference regular season title.
Vara was a four-year letter winner as a setter for UW-Oshkosh from 2006-09, helping the Titans to a 143-18 record, three regular season conference championships and four NCAA Championship appearances. The New Berlin West High School graduate earned NCAA Division III All-Midwest Region and All-WIAC first team honors in 2009 after totaling 1,478 assists, 326 digs and 77 blocks. The two-time WIAC Women's Volleyball Player of the Week honoree was named UW-Oshkosh's 2010 winner of the Phyllis Roney Coaches Award.
Vara earned a bachelor's degree from UW-Oshkosh in 2010 and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 2012. Vara and her husband, Jeremy Halfmann, have one child and live in Van Dyne.