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Western Illinois University Athletics

Diane Wholey

Diane Wholey

Diane Wholey has coached at track and field championships around the globe in North America, Europe and Asia, and she brought her expertise to Western Illinois University as its newest head coach in January 2018. 
 
Wholey’s 30-plus year resume is decorated with national and conference titles at the collegiate level. She has also assisted Team USA after holding several coaching and managerial positions with USA Track & Field.
 
The 2019 season saw the second-year coach guide the Leathernecks to Summit League Championship titles in the indoor and outdoor long jump event before crowing the year with a trip to NCAA Track & Field West Preliminaries. Wholey coached Bo Brasseur to indoor and outdoor school records in the event and she finished her senior campaign 23rd overall at the national meet with a mark of 5.94 meters (19'6"). 
 
With a focus on the sprinting and jumping crew, Wholey helped guide Brasseur and Michaela Busch to school records (pentathlon and heptathlon) while assisting several to all-time marks including: Busch (high jump / 9th / indoor); Busch (60-meter hurdles / 9th / indoor); Brasseur (200 / sixth / indoor); Amelia Peterson (triple jump / third / indoor and outdoor); Allie Scott (triple jump / fifth / indoor); Tyronay Taylor (triple jump / 10th / indoor); and Peterson (triple jump / seventh / outdoor). 

As an assistant coach at the University of Texas, Wholey coached the Longhorns to NCAA indoor and outdoor championships in 1998 and 1999. She helped the program to four Big 12 titles during the stretch, and added one more to her credit at Texas Tech University, where she served as the associate head coach for 10 seasons (1999-2008).
 
Wholey transitioned to the role of an assistant athletic director in 2008, but continued to use her expertise as a member of the USA Track & Field staff.    
 
She was most recently named the head women’s coach for the 2017 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in London, England, and has guided the nation’s U-23s to the 2014 NACAC Championship in Kamloops, Canada.
 
Wholey was called upon twice in 2004 to coach the women’s team in the IAAF World Indoor Championship in Budapest, Hungary and the USA vs. Germany vs. France Team Challenge in Munich, Germany. She was the head women’s manager at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
 
Her collegiate career began as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Tennessee, where she helped lead the Volunteers to three top-10 national finishes in both indoor and outdoor track, as well as a pair of top-15 national finishes in cross country and an SEC cross country championship in 1990.
 
Wholey earned her master's degree in physical education from Tennessee before accepting a full-time position as an assistant track and field coach at the University of Mississippi. 
 
She completed her undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.  
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