Bio

Lonni Steven Wilson, Ph.D. has been coaching volleyball for nearly twenty years and has coached at the junior high, high school, club and collegiate levels. He began his coaching career in 1995 as a student assistant coach at his alma mater, Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, CA), in the NAIA. That team featured an NAIA All-American and several all-conference selections, while setting NAIA records in most assists per game, en route to a trip to the NAIA Volleyball National Tournament where the team finished 5^th nationally.

Following that, Dr. Wilson coached girls volleyball at Pasadena Christian School, boys volleyball at Crescenta Valley High School, girls club volleyball for the Crusader Volleyball Club, and girls volleyball at Beyer High School. In 2000, he was the assistant coach for Delta Valley Volleyball Club’s top 18s team that won the Colorado Crossroads Qualifier and followed that up with a national championship, winning the gold medal in the 18-open division at the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships in Louisville, KY. Three players were named to the Junior Olympic team. Nine athletes from the team went on to full-ride scholarships at NCAA Division I Institutions. Three went on to win NCAA National Championships, two were All-Americans, and one went on to become a USA Volleyball Olympian, as the starting Libero for Team USA, which won the Silver Medal in the 2008 Olympics.

The following club season, Dr. Wilson served as an assistant for Vision Volleyball Club’s top 17s team. That team won two Junior Olympic Qualifiers en route to a 5^th place finish nationally in the 17-open division at the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships. Its setter went on to become a collegiate All-American. 

While pursuing his Ph.D., Dr. Wilson volunteered for two years with the women’s volleyball team at NCAA Division I powerhouse, The Ohio State University. The 2001 team featured four Big-10 selections, one All-American, and the AVCA National Freshman of the Year, who went on to become a four-time All-American at OSU. The team finished second in the Big Ten Conference, posting a record of 27-4, and 12^th in the nation in the final USA Today/AVCA Coaches Poll. The following season the team finished 21-11, 4^th in the Big Ten, 13^th in the nation, had four Big Ten selections, the Big Ten Player of the year, and an All-American.

Dr. Wilson spent the next season as a volunteer assistant at NCAA Division II University of West Georgia where he also served as a faculty member in Sport Management. In 2005, he and his family relocated to Buffalo, NY  where he spent the next five years as a professor of Sport Management at NCAA Division III Medaille College. While there, he spent the 2005 season as an assistant coach for Medaille, and led the Mavericks as head coach in the 2007 season.  Dr. Wilson also spent five years working with Niagara Frontier Volleyball Club, serving as a coach, webmaster and board member, while creating the largest and most successful girls volleyball club in the state of New York. In each of his four seasons at the helm for NFVB, his teams won the regional championship and qualified for trips to the USA Volleyball Junior Olympic National Championships. 

Dr. Wilson earned his Ph.D. in Sport Management from The Ohio State University. He also holds an M.A. in Sport Management from the University of San Francisco, an M.F.A. in Film from the University of Miami (FL), and a B.A. from Point Loma Nazarene University. He currently directs the Sport Management B.S. program at Keiser University in Sarasota.

Dr. Wilson is married to Melodia, who works as the staff assistant for SCF athletics. Together, they have three children, Wil, McKinley, and Izzabelle. They reside on a small farm in Parrish, FL.

“I am excited to take over the reins of the SCF volleyball program. The athletic program here has a rich history of focusing on excellence – both on the court and in the classroom.”