35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 11th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Thirty-five years ago, Saint Joseph’s College Linda Deno found herself competing on the Pumas’ basketball court, while Sue Willey of the University of Indianapolis was on the opposite side coaching the Greyhounds.
At that time, Saint Joseph’s and Indianapolis were two of the six charter members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, but Deno and Willey were not participating as true GLVC members. It would not be for another five years until the NCAA officially sponsored women’s athletics, so Deno and Willey were competing under the banner of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Little did the two know, however, that 35 years later they would be the longest-tenured active administrators in the GLVC. So perhaps it was fitting that Deno and Willey caught up this weekend at the 2013 GLVC Volleyball Championship Tournament at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill.
Willey has been UIndy’s Athletics Director and now Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics since 2003, while Deno, the Pumas’ Associate Athletics Director for Compliance, has served in the role of Senior Woman Administrator since 2001. Both have coached multiple sports at their respective institutions, including volleyball.
In a special sit-down video segment of
35|35, the two school administrators discussed the paths that each have taken to get to where they are now, and gave credit to the mentors who have helped guide them along the way, including one of two GLVC founding fathers, Richard F. Scharf, and former Northern Kentucky administrator and GLVC Hall of Famer Jane Meier.