Willie Whealen joined the Billikens' volleyball program as the volunteer assistant coach prior to the 2020-21 season.
Since 2014, Whealen has served as a head coach or an assistant coach both at NCAA Division I-II levels and at multiple high school programs. Those include High Performance St. Louis Volleyball Club, Lindenwood University, Visitation Academy and St. Louis University High School (SLUH). In those positions, he planned practices, created and implemented scouting reports and conducted regular player meetings.
While at SLUH, Whealen coached his alma mater's varsity program to 2016, 2018 and 2019 state championships, including an undefeated season in 2018. Also at SLUH, he developed communal practice structure for freshman/JV programs by collaborating with and involving coaches of all levels of the program. Whealen developed a goal-oriented curriculum for the entire program and for each individual team.
At Visitation Academy, Whealen created an environment of continual improvement that culminated in breaking a 12-year district championship drought by establishing goals early and effectively conveying areas of long-term development for each player.
Whealen received a BFA in English literature from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2015.He then received a Missouri Teaching Certificate in Secondary English from Lindenwood University in 2019.
