Volleyball Coaches’ Biographies
Bill Burnside – Head Coach
- Email: billburnside@jalc.edu
- Phone: (618)457-7676 ext.8301
In 2009, in his 1st year as the head coach here at John A. Logan College, coach Burnside led the Lady Vols to a 24-12 record overall. The team finished 1st in NJCAA Region 24 and 2nd in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference with a 6-2 record. He was awarded Region 24 Coach of the Year Honors.
Coach Burnside has been involved in volleyball for over twenty years now as a coach and player. He spent 4 years as a Head Volleyball Coach for Lambuth University in Jackson, TN. During his tenure this perennial NAIA loser became a respectable team in the tough TranSouth Conference. The team progressed from a 6-26 record before his arrival to 23-19 in 2005 and 20-15 in 2006. While at Lambuth, he also instructed courses in Sport Psychology, Lifetime Wellness, Tennis, and Volleyball.
Prior to that, he was an assistant coach here at John A Logan for 6 seasons. All together, Coach Burnside has 11 years of collegiate volleyball coaching experience. In addition to this, he has coached men’s club teams (University of Delaware 1992-1995), Juniors Clubs in Southern Illinois, and worked collegiate camps at Southern Illinois University, U. of Illinois, and here at John A Logan College.
As a player, Coach Burnside played for the University of Delaware for 3 seasons, and participated in adult USAV competition for over 20 years. He played at the highest men’s levels available and was a member of the 2001 Gateway Region (Based in St Louis, MO) Men’s Championship Team.
In the past, he has also been a Gateway Regional Referee, and earned a USAV CAP Level II Coaching Certification.
Coach Burnside has a Bachelors of Arts in History (University of Delaware) and a Masters of Science in Physical Education (Southern Illinois University). His wife Penny is a teacher at a local elementary school, and they have a 2 year old daughter, Kara Leann.
Veronica Whittington – Assistant Coach
Veronica Whittington is entering her second season as assistant volleyball coach at John A. Logan College. A graduate of Carbondale Community High School, she played the outside hitter position for the Lady Vols in 2002 and 2003 and was an integral part of the 2002 team that placed seventh at the NJCAA National Tournament. After graduating from Logan, she played volleyball at Tennessee Tech University where she earned a degree in nursing and currently works at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion.