WILMINGTON — Bill Wilson, an experienced collegiate administrator and coach, will take over as the Senior Director of Athletics at Wilmington College on April 1.

“I am excited to return to my home state of Ohio and join the Wilmington College family,” said Wilson. “I was extremely impressed with the dedicated faculty, staff and student-athletes during the interview process. I want to thank President Trevor Bates, Provost Erika Goodwin and the hiring committee for trusting me with this great responsibility.”

Wilson comes to Wilmington from the University of Montana Western where he served as its Director of Athletics for four years. UMW earned the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Champions of Character Award in both 2019 and 2020 under his guidance. Additionally, Bulldog student-athletes achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.18 for three consecutive years. In just his first year at UMW, Wilson developed a booster club that had more than 170 members as well as grew corporate sponsorships by more than 75 percent. He also chaired a task force that dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw multiple facility renovation projects.

“We are excited for Bill and his 32 years of experience in intercollegiate athletics to join the campus community,” said Goodwin, WC’s Provost who chaired the search committee. “I was impressed by his philosophy on how an athletic department must fit into the overall mission of the college. That’s especially important here as almost half of our student body are student-athletes.”

Prior to UMW, Wilson was Director of Athletics at Pratt Community College, a two-year residential college in Kansas. He grew the school’s booster club by better than 100 percent, the department’s operating budget by more than 20 percent and procured an all-institution agreement with Under Armour, the first such agreement of its kind in the state of Kansas. Wilson also established the Student-Athlete Leadership Program, designed to focus on student-athletes’ development academically, socially and communally.

Wilson is no stranger to NCAA Division III as he spent time at Northland College (Wisc.) as Director of Athletics, assistant athletic director and head women’s basketball coach. At Northland, he led the LumberJills to the NCAA Division III tournament in 2010 and his 2012 roster led the country in cumulative grade point average at 3.70.

In total, Wilson has 23 years of collegiate basketball coaching experience including 16 as a head coach at Northland, Brevard College (N.C.) and the Upper Iowa University. In addition to producing six 1,000-point scorers, his teams maintained 100 percent graduation rates.

“I am looking forward to Bill Wilson joining our campus community as our Senior Director of Athletics because he has demonstrated the energy, experience, and expertise to help build stronger and wider bridges between what I call the five ‘A’s’ on campus – Athletics, Academics, Admission, Advancement, and Alumni,” said Bates, Wilmington’s 19th president.

Alongside his athletic administrative and coaching experience, Wilson enjoyed a two-decade career as a collegiate baseball umpire, working games at all levels of college baseball. He has umpired in NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA regionals as well as a multitude of conference championships. An avid fly fisherman, Wilson has taught fly fishing and fly tying for more than 15 years.

In stepping into this new role, Wilson will be just the fifth athletic director Wilmington College has had in 72 years as he is preceded by Terry Rupert (1996-2022), Dick Scott (1989-96), Bill Ramseyer (1974-89) and Fred Raizk (1950-74).

“Though Terry Rupert leaves behind an incredible legacy and evidence of many accomplishments at Wilmington College, this is an exciting opportunity for Wilmington Athletics to start a new chapter,” said Wilson. “I am eager to get to work building something that all of the college’s stakeholders can be proud of.”

Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Eastern Kentucky University and a master’s in education and athletics administration from Slippery Rock University (Pa.). He’s an active member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.