As an all-conference setter for the St. Ambrose women's volleyball team, Catherine Wildner '13 would see the entire floor, pinpoint a weakness on the other side of the net and feed a strength on her own side in hopes of winning a point.
Call it a view to a kill. Or maybe just vision.
"The setter has to have a lot of leadership qualities," Wildner said in advance of her January debut as SAU's head men's volleyball coach.
Yes. Men's coach. When Bill Gleeson '05, '10 MBA stepped down last spring after a seven-year run that included a pair of runner-up finishes in the NAIA National Tournament, it didn't take long to determine Wildner was the best person to lead the program.
Having served as an assistant both for the men's and women's teams in 2013-14, as well as head coach for the men's junior varsity squad, Wildner brings an established presence and reputation.
"She has a good feel for the game, a good competitive drive, and she is really organized," said Bruce Billingsley, the assistant athletic director, men's volleyball program founder and women's volleyball head coach who recruited Wildner to St. Ambrose. "She is a good leader."
Wildner will be the third active female head coach among the 20 teams that currently compete in NAIA men's volleyball, but that is unusual across the collegiate sports landscape. A 2012 study by the Office of Post Secondary Education's Equity in Athletics Commission found just 3 percent of all men's collegiate athletic teams were led by women. Conversely, men coached 60 percent of all women's collegiate teams.
Wildner said the returning men's players have welcomed her as their new coach.
"It's definitely something different for them," she said. "But these are really good kids and they will work hard for anybody. They want to succeed as a team and they trust the process. Whoever they are coached by, they will have success."
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