Denise Van De Walle Position: Head Coach Experience: 26th season

Denise Van De Walle enters her 26th season as head coach of the Bowling Green State University volleyball program, looking to continue a long-standing tradition of success.

Van De Walle, the dean of Mid-American Conference volleyball coaches, is also the winningest mentor in conference history.

Since joining BGSU, Van De Walle has built a highly competitive program that ranks as one of the best in the MAC and the midwest, both on and off the court. Van De Walle has manufactured an overall record of 462-313 (.596) and has led the Orange and Brown to a winning season in 17 of the last 21 years, including 12 seasons of 20-plus wins and a 30-win campaign in 1992.

In her 25th season Coach Van De Walle led the 2007 squad to the fourth consecutive winning season with an overall record of 21-10 and a MAC record of 12-4. Van De Walle and the `07 Falcons defended their home court as they opened the season 12-0 in Anderson Arena finishing with a 12-1 record on their home court, their best home opening and record since 1991. The Falcons' undfeated 12-0 run in Anderson Arena included their fourth tournament championship as home as the team won the Best Western Invitational.

Coach Van De Walle also reached another milestone during her 25th as she recorded her 450th win leading the Falcons as they defeated the Miami RedHawks on Sept. 20, 2008, 3-2 (30-27, 29-31, 30-19, 22-30, 15-9). Coach Van De Walle finished the season the as the winningest coach in BGSU history with 452 wins and leads the MAC as the winningest volleyball mentor.

In 2006, Van De Walle guided her squad to a 26-6 overall record that included a 17-match winning streak that ranks as the longest in Falcon history. The `06 Falcons also posted a 13-3 mark in conference play, advancing to the MAC Championship Match.

Coach Van De Walle's 462 overall wins since assuming the helm of the Falcons are the most of any conference coach, and her total of 218 MAC wins since coming to BG are the third-most of any MAC mentor in history.

Van De Walle, whose tenure is the longest of any current head coach at BG, became just the third coach in the history of BGSU volleyball on June 30, 1983, and has coached at the high school, college, national, and international levels.

In May of 2001, Van De Walle was named President of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. She held the office until December of 2001. She has been very active in the AVCA during her Falcon tenure.

In the fall of 2002, Van De Walle became the first-ever coach to amass 350 career wins at a MAC school, reaching that plateau in a win over Marshall.

The following year Van De Walle recorded win 375 over Oakland on September 13.

Win number 400 came after a 3-0 sweep over Chicago State in 2005.

The Falcons' three consecutive 20-win seasons (1999-2001) marked just the second time in school history - both under Van De Walle - that BG teams accomplished that feat. She guided the Brown and Orange to five-straight years of 20 or more wins from 1989-93.

The 2000 team, like the 2001 squad, won 21 matches and earned the program some hardware. Coming off a successful 1999 campaign, the Falcons had lost a strong senior class, and were picked to finish fourth in the East Division. BGSU proceeded to go 21-9 and tie for the division title.

In 1999, the Falcons were the most improved team in the MAC, going from 11-21 in 1998 to 21-12 the next fall. The Brown and Orange tripled the conference win total of the previous season, going 12-6 in the MAC and advancing to the semifinal round of the league tournament.

Over those three seasons, the Falcons had an overall record of 63-29 and a MAC mark of 36-18 - both tops among the league's East Division members. The Brown and Orange moved to the West Division in 2002.

In the classroom, Van De Walle's squads perennially have one of the top team cumulative grade-point averages in the conference and have had numerous regional Academic All-Americans, including Emily Manser, who was a member of the ESPN The Magazine/COSIDE Academic All-American team in 2004 and 2005. BGSU volleyball is a nine-time recipient of the AVCA/GamePlanNational Academic Award, including a season with the highest GPA in the nation.

Van De Walle's volleyball squads have recorded the highest team GPA on campus in six of the last eight years.

Over the last 12 years, the Falcons have graduated 41 players from the volleyball program. No fewer than 31 of those players had a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better.

Van De Walle has been chosen by her peers as MAC "Coach of the Year" on four occasions, receiving outright honors in 1989 and 1986, while sharing the award in 1992 and 1987.

The Falcons soared under Van De Walle's leadership in the 90s, earning three national postseason berths. In 1993, the Brown and Orange recorded a 20-11 overall mark, finishing second in the MAC during both regular-season and tournament play. BG advanced to the prestigious National Invitational Volleyball Championship in Kansas City, Mo., for the second straight year, finishing third in its pool with a 2-2 record.

In 1992, the Falcons established a school record for victories in a season (the second time in as many years), going 30-8. BG's 17-1 league record gave the program its third regular-season league crown in four years. The team capped a spectacular fall campaign with a runner-up finish at the NIVC - the highest ever by a MAC member.

All of those impressive accomplishments came on the heels of a 29-5 record in 1991. That year saw the Falcons win both the MAC regular-season and tournament titles, while making the program's first NCAA appearance. BG was ranked 19th nationally in the final 1991 NCAA poll.

Van De Walle's 1989 squad won the program's initial MAC title, halting Western Michigan's 98-match league winning streak and seven-year reign as league champion in the process. BG finished the season with a perfect 8-0 league mark.

BGSU, however, is not the only place where Van De Walle has been successful.

A 1976 graduate of Ball State University, Van De Walle began her coaching career at Northside High School in Muncie, Ind., where she led her team to an overall record of 54-9 during the 1977 and 1978 seasons. Her '77 squad posted an impressive 29-1 record en route to the state championship while her 1978 team produced a 25-8 slate that included sectional and regional titles. For her efforts, Van De Walle was named "Coach of the Year" by the Indiana High School Athletic Association following the 1978 campaign.

She then became a graduate assistant at her alma mater in 1979, coaching the junior varsity team while assisting with the varsity.

In 1980, Van De Walle returned to NHS and guided the team to a sectional championship and a 25-3 record. That year, she also coached the Michiana Volleyball Club that participated in the United States Volleyball Association Junior Nationals in California and the Junior Olympics in Illinois. In 1981, Van De Walle joined the program at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo as an assistant coach and helped the Mustangs to a 41-8 record and a fifth-place finish in the NCAA Division I Championships.

She went back to BSU in 1982 as the assistant coach, and the Cardinals finished third in the MAC with a 33-12 overall record. Following that season, of course, she came to BGSU to begin her storied Falcon tenure. Van De Walle's coaching experience is certainly not limited to the collegiate game.

During the summer of 1983, Van De Walle was an assistant coach with the Athletes in Action volleyball team that toured the Far East with stops in Hong Kong, Japan, and China. She assisted the overall tour preparation in the areas of cultural, spiritual, and physical conditioning. She again accompanied the AIA team to the Far East in 1984, this time serving as head coach, returning home with a mark of 9-4.

In 1993, Van De Walle coached at the U.S. Olympic Festival in San Antonio, Texas. That stint marked her second Festival coaching appearance in three years. At the 1991 games held in Los Angeles, Van De Walle guided the East to a bronze medal.

In 1992, Van De Walle was to have coached the U.S. Junior National Women's Volleyball Team at the North America, Central America, and Canada (NORCECA) World Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, but, unfortunately, the U.S. could not participate. However, she was in charge of running the USVBA women's senior elite camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she organized scrimmages between the senior groups and the junior national unit she was to have coached. Van De Walle also assisted women's National Team head coach Terry Liskevych in selecting the participants to the camp. BGSU's Carey Amos participated in this camp.

In 1995 and 1996, Van De Walle was named the head coach of the AIA volleyball teams which toured Bolivia and South Africa, respectively. The 1995 team finished with a 10-3 record while the 1996 squad posted an unblemished 8-0 mark.

In the summer of 1998, Van De Walle was a part of the first-ever international mission of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She was the only volleyball coach in a four-person group that travelled to Singapore. That group conducted clinics and spoke at various youth activities and church functions during the mission. Van De Walle returned to Singapore during the summer of 2000.

Van De Walle was a setter at BSU and served as team captain in 1975. She led the Cardinals to the 1973 Indiana State Championship and a 13th-place finish at the AIAW nationals.

A much-requested clinician and instructional speaker, Van De Walle has worked at volleyball camps throughout the nation. She also serves as a leader for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle at BGSU and advisor to H2O. The Falcon mentor has been a member of the NCAA Mideast Region volleyball committee while also serving as an alternate on the NCAA Division I National Committee in 1990.

Van De Walle served on the AVCA Board of Directors 1993-2000 as the Division I Representative, but relinquished that role upon becoming President in May, 2001. She served on the Board as Past-President the following year.

Van De Walle sat on the board of directors for USA Volleyball. She is in her third year as an AVCA Top-25 poll voter.

Additionally, Van De Walle led the USA Women's National Sitting Volleyball Team to a bronze medal as an assistant coach in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Greece.

Van De Walle guided the National Sitting Team in June of 2006 at the Triple World Championships in the Netherlands. With a sweep over Ukraine, the red, white and blue finished fifth.

In the summer of 2007 coach Van De Walle and the National Sitting team finished second at Nationals, finishing behind only China, the host of the event.

This past summer Coach Van De Walle and the Women's National Sitting finished fifth at the first ever World Organization Volleyball for the Disabled Intercontinental Cup in Egypt. Van De Walle and Team USA will compete in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in September, as the third ranked team in the world , after qualifying at the 2006 Volleyball World Championships with a fifth place finish.