Zach Otto-Fisher enters his fifth season as head coach of the UW-Superior women's basketball team in 2021-22. In just four seasons as head coach, Otto-Fisher has compiled a 69-23 (.794) record and coached nine All-Upper Midwest Athletic Conference honorees and has been named conference Coach of the Year two times.
Otto-Fisher helped the Yellowjackets to a 18-9 record and 13-3 mark in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference in 2019-20 before falling to Bethany Lutheran in the conference title game in 2019-20. UWS placed Emily Carpenter and Eva Reinertsen on the All-UMAC First Team, while Marissa Ruiz earned an honorable-mention selection and Carpenter also landed on the all-defensive team. Reinertsen became the first student in school history to be named CoSIDA Academic All-America for the second straight season as well as the first-ever to be a first-team pick. Reinertsen was also named D3hoops.com All-Region.
Otto-Fisher was named UMAC Co-Coach of the Year in his second season, leading the Yellowjackets to a 24-3 overall record in 2018-19. The 'Jackets were 15-1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, advancing to the championship game. Superior snapped a 53-game conference-game winning streak with a loss at Bethany Lutheran Jan. 5.
Otto-Fisher mentored two all-UMAC first team players in Hannah Norlin and Eva Reinertsen last season. Norlin was also named UMAC Player of the Year and closed her career ranked second all-time in career scoring at UWS with 1,359 points. Norlin collected 12 double-doubles on the season and was named UMAC Player of the Week five times, including four consecutively Nov.19-Dec. 10. Norlin was also honored as part of the D3hoops.com Team of the Week twice and earned Division III National Player of the Week from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Dec. 4. On March 11 Norlin was also named D3hoops.com All-Region.
Reinertsen herself was named UMAC Player of the Week on three occasions in 2018-19 and became the 'Jackets' second Academic All-America® selection in history, earning Division III third team honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America on March 13.
In the 2017-18 season, Otto-Fisher led the Yellowjackets to their third consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship, posting a 23-5 overall record with a perfect 16-0 mark in league play, along with earning the UMAC Coach of the Year. The 'Jackets swept through the conference tournament, beating Northwestern, 65-54, in the semifinals Feb. 21 and Bethany Lutheran, 66-54, Feb. 24, before bowing out to UW-Whitewater in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Otto-Fisher came to UW-Superior as an assistant in 2016-17 after spending three seasons as the head girls basketball coach at Glencoe-Silver Lake High School in Glencoe, Minn.
Under Otto-Fisher's guidance, the Panthers enjoyed a resurgence, finishing above the .500 mark each of the last two seasons of his tenure, including an 8-6 record in Wright County Conference play in 2015-16. It was the first time in 10 years that Glencoe-Silver Lake had back-to-back winning seasons. During the 2014-15 campaign, the Panthers earned a berth in the subsection finals, marking the first time since 1997 the team advanced that far in the postseason.
Otto-Fisher helped five of his players at Glencoe-Silver Lake move on to play college basketball, including two that advanced to the NCAA Division I level.
Along with coaching basketball, Otto-Fisher was the head girls soccer coach at Glencoe-Silver Lake for five years.
Otto-Fisher has been the head coach of the Minnesota Fury, one of the top AAU basketball programs in not only Minnesota, but the entire Upper Midwest for the past five years. He began his basketball coaching career with the Fury's 14U team and has stayed with that group through their 17U season, helping them to a 115-45 record during that span.
An alumnus of UW-Superior, Otto-Fisher earned a bachelor of science degree in Legal Studies in 2008. He and his wife, Jessie, an assistant women's basketball coach at Minnesota Duluth, reside in Superior, Wis., and were married in August 2020. The couple's first daughter, Quinn, was born July 5, 2021.
| Otto-Fisher at UW-Superior |
| Year |
W |
L |
Pct. |
Honors |
| 2020-21 |
4 |
6 |
.400 |
-- |
| 2019-20 |
18 |
9 |
.667 |
-- |
| 2018-19 |
24 |
3 |
.889 |
UMAC Co-Coach of the Year |
| 2017-18 |
23 |
5 |
.821 |
UMAC Coach of the Year |
| Total |
69 |
23 |
.794 |
-- |
