MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College has hired Shane Taylor and Sara Williamson as the new head coaches of its soccer programs, Athletic Director Mike Hampton has announced.
Taylor will take over as IWC’s men’s soccer coach, while Williamson will coach the Wesleyan women’s soccer team. Both will replace Ed Heberling, who coached both the men’s and women’s programs last year. Heberling left IWC to take the head men’s and women’s coaching positions at Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, S.C.
Taylor is the third head coach in IWC men’s soccer history and comes to Wesleyan after spending the last five years at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill. Taylor coached the men’s team for five years and also coached the IC women’s team for the past two years.
“I am honored and grateful to accept the head men's soccer coaching position at IWC,” Taylor said. “The opportunity that President Simmons and Athletic Director Mike Hampton have given me is a special one and I will be working hard to make the men's soccer program prominent athletically and academically in the MCC and the NAIA."
At Illinois College the Blueboys’ program under Taylor steadily improved in wins, participation, and overall team performance. Last year the Blueboys finished fifth in the NCAA Division III Midwest Conference with five conference wins, the team’s best finish since 1993. He finished his career tied for most wins all-time by a coach in IC men’s soccer history. Taylor received his bachelor’s degree from Ashford University and in all has more than 13 years of coaching experience as well as 17 years playing the sport.
Williamson also replaces Heberling, who coached the Tiger women the past seven years and is the winningest coach in the program’s history. No relation to Iowa Wesleyan women’s basketball coach Steve Williamson, she comes to IWC after spending two years as an assistant coach at Cornell College in Mount Vernon.
Williamson also has been the head coach at Mount Vernon High School for the past six years, where she has compiled a record of 51-26. She led the Mustangs to Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference titles in 2006 and 2008 and had Mount Vernon-Lisbon ranked in the top 15 in the state in both 2007 and 2008. She also coached 32 all-conference players as well as 11 all-state athletes, and plans to continue as Mount Vernon-Lisbon’s coach in the spring while also heading the women’s soccer program at IWC.
"I am excited for the opportunity to lead this team to the next level of soccer,” Williamson said. “I look forward to working with the athletic department and the women's soccer program at IWC and all that it has to offer."
Williamson is a 2001 graduate of MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., where she played for three years, led the team in scoring as a junior and was a team captain as a senior. She is finishing a master’s degree in Coaching/Athletic Administration from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.
For more information regarding the IWC soccer programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
