Bill Cleary - Head Coach

Bill Cleary enters his fifth season as the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Wilmington University. Since his arrival, there has been a great deal of success. Coach Cleary ended the string of consecutive losing seasons and play-off appearances in only his second season. In two of the last three seasons, the Lady Wildcats have earned play-off berths in the CACC Conference Quarterfinals. Last year may have been Coach Cleary’s most successful with victories against Defending CACC Conference Champion, USP and longtime Division II powerhouse Philadelphia University.

Before he came to Wilmington, Coach Cleary served as an assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at Towson University. He also served as a Graduate Assistant at Georgia Tech for the Men’s Basketball program. “I feel very fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest basketball minds in the game today. Paul Hewitt (GT), Peter Zaharis (GT), Chris Mooney (Richmond), Cliff Warren (Jacksonville), and Dean Keener (JMU), have all been so instrumental in making me the coach I am today. I am totally indebted to them. While working with these great basketball minds, I was fortunate to be apart of great teams that went to post-season play in the NCAA Tournament four different times. I feel that being apart of these programs has helped me learn what I need to do in order to be successful in building a consistent, top-tier program.”

Coach Cleary received his Undergraduate Degree in Political Science from Villanova University. While at Villanova University, Coach Cleary was a Senior Manager for the Wildcats and went to the NCAA Tournament. In addition to his Undergraduate Degree, Coach Cleary earned his Master's Degree in Sports Management from Georgia State University. He currently works at the College in the Admissions and Athletics departments.

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