Women's Basketball - Coaches
Head Coach Donald Mulhern
Contact Information:
Phone:(715)395-4672
E-Mail:dmulhern@uwsuper.edu
About:
Donald Mulhern, Ph.d, is entering his twentieth season as a college basketball coach and his second season at the University of Wisconsin Superior. During his coaching tenure, he has systematically taken his respective programs and moved each of them in a positive direction. As a head women’s basketball coach at MacMurray College, Don took a program that had a losing record, having won three, four, and five games respectively in the previous seasons, and turned the program into one of the more respected programs in the Midwest. He helped guide the team from a sixth place finish in his first season (92-93 season) to back-to-back conference championships in the 94-95 and 95-96 seasons. He was named Coach of the Year and Co-Coach of the Year during those seasons and his team appeared in its first ever NCAA Division III tournament in 1996. In 1998-99, his team finished with a 19-8 season and broke the school record for the most wins in a season. In 1999-2000, MacMurray finished 19-6, which enabled them to become conference co-champions in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Mulhern’s strong recruiting efforts at MacMurray included having the team’s first successful junior varsity program and having four recruits named as MacMurray College Female Rookie of the Year (given to the top female freshman student athlete on campus). In his last season at MacMurray, a freshman women’s basketball player was named SLIAC first team all conference and SLIAC Co-Newcomer of the Year. During his overall tenure at MacMurray, Mulhern has had 20 players earn All-SLIAC accolades.
Mulhern’s program building success continued at Lindenwood University. As the Head Men’s Basketball Coach, he took a team that was in the lower part of the conference, and again began to systematically improve the program through an aggressive recruiting campaign. After a full year on the recruiting trail, he was able to bring in two of the top recruiting classes in the conference (including the HAAC Freshman of the Year and a current All American) and helped the team earn a trip to the HAAC Post Season Basketball tournament. This group of recruits was tabbed as the "team of the future" in the conference. With the core of his recruits intact, these players later moved on to achieve a conference championship and trip to the national tournament. Due to a desire to move nearer his family and home, Mulhern spent the past season at Rockford College where he helped the team achieve a regular season record of 21-7, while winning the conference championship and the NIIC post season tournament championship. In addition, the team earned a bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament
Mulhern has a bachelor of science degree from Winona (MN) State University and a master of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. In addition, Mulhern completed his doctoral degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport psychology from the University of Minnesota.
A native of Wykoff, MN, Mulhern serves as a lecturer in the Health and Human Performance Department at UW Superior.
Assistant Coach Shannon Norman
Contact Information:
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About:
Shannon Norman is entering her second year as assistant coach for the women’s basketball team. Her role has changed slightly since last year as she is pursuing her Doctor of Education degree at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Shannon’s assistant duties will serve more of a “behind the scenes” function to help enhance the program.
Shannon is in her 8th year teaching as a Physical Education and Health Specialist at the Washburn Edison School in Duluth. In 2005-06, Shannon served a 9 month position as a lecturer in the Health and Human Performance Department here at UWS.
Shannon is a 1999 graduate from UWS. She was an all-conference catcher and captain for the Yellowjacket softball team from 92-96. She attended Proctor High School where she played on the basketball and softball teams. Shannon has spent the past 14 years coaching various sports in Duluth and the surrounding community. Her most recent coaching assignments have been with the Duluth East High School girl’s hockey (2004-06) and Softball teams (2003-06). She is also the camp director for the summer all-girls strength and conditioning camp held in Duluth. This camp gives female high school athletes the opportunity to work on individualized skills and fitness components in the off-season.
Shannon began her coaching career as a Junior High Basketball coach in Proctor, MN while attending classes at UWS. Eventually Shannon became the Varsity Basketball Coach at Fond du Lac Ojibway High School in Cloquet, MN. In 1996, Shannon moved to Minneapolis to be the Assistant Coach for the Augsburg College Women’s Basketball team. While in Minneapolis, she spent time working basketball camps for Janet Karvonen Inc. In 1998 Shannon ventured back to Duluth to begin her student teaching assignment. She was hired by Edison Schools in 1999 as a K-5 Physical Education specialist.
Shannon received her Master’s of Education degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She currently resides in Superior.
Assistant Coach Adam Johnson
Contact Information:
Phone:
E-Mail:
About:
Adam Johnson, a native of Floodwood, Minn., and started his coaching career as an assistant coach in the girls basketball program in Floodwood (1996-1999). After moving to the Twin Cities he spent two years as an assistant girl’s basketball coach at Columbia Heights High School (2001-2003). He also was an assistant coach in football and baseball in Floodwood and softball in Columbia Heights.
He has spent the past four years as the head coach in Grand Rapids. At Grand Rapids he led his teams to a 69-40 record and has the highest winning percentage of any girl’s basketball coach in the school’s history (.633). His team won the Iron Range Conference Championship during the 2003-2004 season and also reached the Section Finals in 2005. He helped move the program forward by leading them in their transition from the Iron Range Conference to an Independent team that played against some of the best teams in the state (Hopkins, Cretin-Derham Hall, Edina, Minnetonka, Wayzata). His teams also won the championship of the Esko Coach’s Classic the past two years.
He has also coached AAU basketball in the northland for the past 11 years, the past eight with Northern Lights. In his second year as an assistant coach for Minnesota Spirit his team finished second in the state in the All-Star Division. He coached his Northern Lights teams to second place finishes in the AAU D II State Tournament in 2002 and 2003. His team won the 18-under Div. II State Tournament in the spring of 2004. He took three teams to the 18-under Div. II Nationals in Orlando, Florida (2003-2005) where they finished fourth in 2003. He was a Finalist for the Minnesota AAU Coach of the Year in 2004.
He has attended school at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Minnesota and is working on completing his degree in History with a minor in Political Science and a teaching degree.
