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A multiple winner of the AVCA Men’s Volleyball Coach of Year award will be inducted into a college’s athletics hall of fame for his work with women’s volleyball.
Mike Wilton, a former men’s volleyball coach at Hawai’i and women’s volleyball coach at Cal Poly, was selected to the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame, the school’s athletics department announced Tuesday.
Wilton in his 11 years at Cal Poly from 1978-89 guided the Mustangs to nine NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition, the coach reached the NCAA Regional Finals three times, and the Mustangs were ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll during the 1985 season.
Along with his success in women’s volleyball, Wilton had a successful coaching career on the men’s side when he left Cal Poly for Hawai’i in 1990.
Wilton compiled a 307-149 career record in his 17 seasons at Hawai’i. The coach also won the National Coach of the Year award in 1995 and 2002 — the only time a Hawai’i coach has received the award.
The Warriors under Wilton won five MPSF championships and reached the NCAA Final Four three times.
In addition, Hawai’i won the 2002 NCAA national championship. However, the team would later have to vacate its only national championship in school history because of NCAA rule violations.
Wilton prior to coaching at Hawai’i spent three years as the head coach of the Cal Poly men’s volleyball club team in the 1970s.
After retiring from Hawai’i at the end of the 2008 season, Wilton opted to return to women’s volleyball as an assistant coach with BYU.
Wilton is one of the five former players and coaches selected to the 2011 hall of fame class. The new members will be formally inducted to the Cal Poly hall of fame on Oct. 7 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.