The Northern Illinois volleyball program announced two new members of its coaching staff today with the additions of Dan and Coley Pawlikowski, who both come from North Park University where Coley was the head coach and Dan was assistant coach.

“We’re very excited to welcome Coley back to the Huskies and Dan to the Huskie family,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden.

The addition of Coley brings well-rounded experience to the program and brings a former Huskie back. From 1999-2001, she was a three-year starter as a defensive specialist and helped NIU win the Mid-American Conference tournament and earn a spot in the NCAA tournament in 2001 which is the last time that the Huskies have achieved both feats.

“Coley is loyal to NIU, which I think is critical in this phase of our program’s development,” Gooden said. “I think she’s going to be great recruiting future Huskie players and their families as well as bridging NIU volleyball’s past with the present.”

More recently, Coley has been the head coach of the North Park Vikings since 2006 and definitely left her mark on the program by taking a 5-28 team in 2006 to a 19-12 record in 2008. During that span, she led the Vikings to 37 wins, marking the best three-year stretch of wins for the program since 2000-2002. Additionally, she led North Park to a pair of tournament championships and produced the best outside hitter in the last 12 years of the program in Yaifeh Chafeh.

As a reward for her accomplishments in 2008, Coley received the honor of being one of four out of over 400 NCAA Division III women’s volleyball coaches to earn the Thirty Under 30 Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association for being an up-and-coming coach under the age of 30.

Before her time with North Park, the Batavia, Ill. native was a part of the Geneva High School coaching staff from 2003-2005 helping with every level of the program from freshman to varsity under her father, K.C. Johnsen, who is the women’s head coach.

In 2004, Coley was selected as one of 12 Great Lakes Region High Performance Coaches, who evaluate and train top junior club players in the region with techniques used by the U.S. National Team.

Since 1999, Coley has been with the Kane County Juniors Volleyball Club team, serving as both an administrator and coach for the men’s and women’s programs. For the past five years, she has been the head coach of the 18’s division, who went 18-1 in 2008. The 18’s have won the Asics Championships in each of the last three years and her 18-Gold team has been a regular top 20 team in the Great Lakes Region, finishing 13th in the national division of the 2008 USAV Junior National Championships in Dallas.

Dan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Huskies after serving under his wife, Coley, at North Park for the last three seasons and reunites with Gooden, who coached Dan in his playing days as both hail from Evanston, Ill. Dan has also been coached and influenced by former Ball State All-American Chris Cooper, All-Era coach Vic Botwin and his father, Bob Pawlikowski.

“I’m excited to have Dan in DeKalb,” said Gooden. “We’ve known each other for over a decade. He has made a positive impact with every program that he’s been a part of. He will help tremendously in the gym training our players. He will also play a critical role in expanding our Huskie fan base through our camp and community programs.”

Prior to his time with the Vikings, Dan served men’s coaching staff from 2004-2006 at Loyola University Chicago, helping the Ramblers to their best season in program history in 2005 with a 26-3 record. During his three seasons at Loyola, the team went 72-13, won two MIVA conference regular season championships and had nine different players honored on the all-conference squad. While working mostly with the outside hitters and liberos, he helped three different players win Libero of the Year in the conference and helped four players earn AVCA All-American selections.

After his graduation from the University of Illinois, Dan held assistant coaching positions with the girl’s team at Glenbrook North High School, boy’s team at Evanston Township High School and was head coach for both the boy’s and girl’s teams in the Adversity Volleyball club. Additionally, he has also helped coach with Coley on the Kane County Juniors 18 Gold team.

In his playing days, Dan participated with the Illinois men’s club team as an outside hitter for four years. With the Illini, he was part of a team that won three Midwest championships, two Big Ten titles and earned four top 10 finishes at the NIRSA Division I national tournament.

In his sophomore year, he helped the team finish third in the nation and he garnered All-Big Ten honors in his junior and senior seasons.