BG Athletics Celebrates Women's History Month: Denise Van De Walle

Throughout the month of March, BGSUFalcons.com will be highlighting some of the women who have impacted the University, the community and the athletics department. From pioneers to more recent members of the department, Matt Markey will be providing the stories of our history. Our fourth story of this series highlights the longest tenured female head coach in department history, Denise Van De Walle.

Part One - Hayley (Wiemer) Bradford
Part Two - Valerie Newell
Part Three - Stephanie Heldt-Sheller

A year ago, BGSUFalcons.com produced a similar series for Black History Month. Fans can review and re-read those stories by CLICKING HERE.

The Mid-American Conference championship trophy sat on the scorer's table, very near the court where the Bowling Green volleyball team was attempting to take down a dynasty. Western Michigan had won seven straight MAC titles, and an incredible 98 straight conference matches. Both teams entered the day unbeaten in league play.

The conference commissioner was there, along with a boisterous Anderson Arena crowd. The Falcons, who had not won a single set against Western in Denise Van Walle's first six seasons as head coach, swept the opposition that day, winning Bowling Green's first conference championship.

Van De Walle's 29 years leading the Falcon volleyball program are filled with vivid and priceless memories such as those produced on that November day in 1989.

"My parents were in the stands and they hadn't been to a home match to see me coach," said Van De Walle. "History was made as we snapped the longest winning streak in the nation that day."

Fast forward to September of 2011, and Falcon volleyball is the first BG team to play in the new Stroh Center. Undefeated Michigan State was the opposition as the arena packed with 3,000 fans, the BGSU cheerleaders and the band created an orange and brown force field. The Falcons won in four sets, with Kerm and Mary Lu Stroh seated on the BG bench.

"The student section was more alive than anything I had ever seen before," said Van De Walle, who compiled a 527-378 record with the Falcons, winning three MAC Championships, two MAC Eastern Division Championships, and leading BG to winning seasons in 19 of her last 25 years with the program.

She is equally proud of the 13 times her teams won 20-plus games in a season, and the 30-win campaign in 1992, but Van De Walle said some of the most cherished moments did not involve a trophy, a plaque, a victory or even stepping on the court.

"The one-on-one talks in the office or gym, the countless bus rides filled with laughter, the players building tents with their blankets, eating snacks, and the wonderful relationships built over my 29 year career will always be remembered with such pride and love," she said.

There were also the steep challenges of the early days, when Van De Walle was the program's only staff member. With no assistants, she ran every practice, coached every match, recruited every player, did the laundry, put down the court lines, drove the van to away matches -- there and back in the same day -- did the budget, ordered equipment, did inventory, solved player problems, monitored academics, and took care of anything else the program needed done.

But for Van De Walle, who had only worked as a high school coach and as a graduate assistant before taking over a Division I program at BG, there were no complaints.

"My job at Bowling Green never really felt like a job," Van De Walle said. "I always felt so blessed to be doing something that I loved and something I was so passionate about."

Van De Walle went on to win four MAC Coach of the Year awards, and was involved at the highest level of several national volleyball organizations, including helping coach the USA Women's National Sitting Volleyball Team to Paralympic Games medals in Athens and Beijing. After serving as a volunteer assistant at Notre Dame for three years, she now is the head coach at St. Mary's College in Indiana. She credits her tenure at Bowling Green for opening so many doors.

"I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I could do it," she said about her nearly three decades as head coach of the Falcons. "It gave me the confidence to be in front of a group for public speaking. It gave me countless opportunities to counsel kids about life. It allowed me the opportunity to run the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter on our campus for over 20 years. That opportunity in itself has given me more joy than I could put into words."

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