St. Bede volleyball turns to a familiar face

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SPRING VALLEY — Dawn Williams keeps pretty busy these days being a mother of four as well teaching English class at St. Bede and being the head of student assistance at the Academy.

Things just got a little busier. Williams, a 1983 SBA alumnus, was named the Lady Bruins new varsity volleyball coach, replacing John Fusinatto, who retired after the 2007 season.

“I talked to my family, a lot, about this decision,” Williams said. “I told my oldest daughter, who is 15, ‘Hey, this will be some extra money for you as well, because I’ll need a baby-sitter,’ and she liked that idea, so I’m good to go.”

The 2004 St. Bede Hall of Fame inductee has not coached in 10 years, but says that won’t be a problem for her.

“You know, I’m really excited about getting back into coaching,” Williams said. “I have good senior leadership coming back. It’s not easy to replace the girls that graduated, but John Fusinatto did an excellent job in getting this program going. These girls are well prepared because of what John did.”

Williams is the daughter of former St. Bede boys’ and girls’ basketball coach Don Carlson, who was inducted into the St. Bede Hall of Fame in 2007. She played volleyball at the Academy and as a senior, was in the very first girls’ basketball program, which was coached by her father.

She graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in English and math in 1987. She also went on to DePaul University where she obtained her master’s degree in education in 1991.

This will not be the first time Williams has coached at the Academy. She coached cross country and basketball and was an assistant softball coach at Providence Catholic as well as their head girls’ basketball and track coach.

She also coached cross country and boys’ track at Mendota High School and is pretty familiar with the girls she will now be coaching at St. Bede.

“When I played softball in college, I was also a student assistant coach,” Williams said. “The things we learned in college is what the kids in high school are doing now, so the transition back to coaching, I think, will be helped a lot because of that.”

St. Bede was waiting to name their head coach as they were filling teaching vacancies at the school, but the wait was worth it to Williams.

“I totally understand why St. Bede was waiting to name a coach,” Williams said. “The athletic director Bernie Moore does an outstanding job there. I think it will be easier for me to come in and coach rather than someone outside the area. I went to school here, played here, and know pretty much all of the girls because I have been teaching here.”

Getting named the volleyball coach and setting up summer volleyball camps was not as bad as one would think.

“It really wasn’t bad getting the camps set up,” Williams said. “Tom McGunnigal pretty much sets all that up and was a lot of help. If we were going to have camps the week was already picked out and ready to go.”

Camps for the Lady Bruins will be June 23-27 in the Academy’s gym. Williams inherits a varsity team that went 18-11 on the season and had a perfect record at their home contest.

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