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Wisconsin-Superior
Yellowjackets
Don Mulhern

Don Mulhern

Donald Mulhern, Ph.d, is entering his 30th season as a college basketball coach and his 12th season at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. During his coaching tenure, he has systematically taken his respective programs and moved each of them in a positive direction.
 
Since coming to UW-Superior in 2006 Mulhern has fashioned a record of 149-142 and is the all-time wins leader at UW-Superior by a wide margin.
 
Last season Mulhern helped guide the Yellowjackets to their second straight 20-win campaign, second straight UMAC regular season championship, second straight UMAC playoff championship, and second straight trip to the NCAA tournament. In two years in the UMAC, Mulhern’s teams are a perfect 32-0 in conference regular season play and 4-0 in the conference tournament.
 
Before running roughshod over the UMAC Mulhern’s teams methodically climbed the ladder in the WIAC. After ending a long playoff drought in 2012, Mulhern improved the team each season thereafter, reaching the WIAC title game in 2014 before winning the school’s only WIAC regular season championship and earning another trip to the WIAC championship game in 2015.
 
Along the way Mulhern’s team have broken numerous school records, including most wins, most conference wins, longest winning streak, and most points scored in a single season.

Several of Mulhern’s players have garnered individual honors during his time at UW-Superior, with ten earning all-conference honors from either the WIAC or UMAC. Additionally Sally Linzmeier was a multiple time All-Region and All-American honoree during her Yellowjacket career, which saw her graduate as the school’s all-time leading scorer. Linzmeier and Hailey Kontny both claimed back-to-back conference Player of the Year awards.
 
Accolades have also come to Mulhern himself, as he was named WIAC Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2015 and UMAC Coach of the Year in 2016. Mulhern and his staff were named the staff of the year by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association in 2015.

Mulhern had several impactful coaching stops, leaving an indelible mark everywhere he coached.?

As the head women's basketball coach at MacMurray College, Mulhern took a program that had a losing record, having won three, four, and five games, respectively in previous seasons, and turned it into one of the more respected programs in the Midwest. He helped guide the team from a sixth place finish in his first season (1992-93) to back-to-back conference championships just two years later. He was named Coach of the Year and Co-Coach of the Year during those seasons and his team appeared in its first-ever NCAA Division III tournament in 1996.
 
In 1998-99, his team finished with a 19-8 mark and broke the school record for the most wins in a season. In 1999-2000, MacMurray finished 19-6, which enabled them to become conference co-champions in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Mulhern's strong recruiting efforts at MacMurray included having the team's first successful junior varsity program and having four recruits named as MacMurray College Female Rookie of the Year (given to the top female freshman student athlete on campus). In his last season at MacMurray, a freshman women's basketball player was named SLIAC first team all conference and SLIAC Co-Newcomer of the Year. During his overall tenure at MacMurray, Mulhern has had 20 players earn All-SLIAC accolades.

Mulhern's program building success continued at Lindenwood University. As the head men's basketball coach, he took a team that was in the lower part of the conference, and again began to systematically improve the program through an aggressive recruiting campaign. After a full year on the recruiting trail, he was able to bring in two of the top recruiting classes in the conference (including the HAAC Freshman of the Year and a future All-American) and helped the team earn a trip to the HAAC post-season basketball tournament. This group of recruits was tabbed as the "Team of the Future" in the conference. With the core of his recruits intact, these players later moved on to achieve a conference championship and trip to the national tournament.

Due to a desire to move nearer his family and home, Mulhern spent the 2005-2006 season at Rockford College where he helped the team achieve a regular season record of 21-7, while winning the conference championship and the NIIC post-season tournament championship. In addition, the team earned a bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.

Mulhern is a member of the NCAA Women's Basketball Rules Committee. He was selected for a four-year stint on the national rules committee, and is one of three NCAA Division III women's basketball coaches to be selected as a member of this 13-member national committee.  

Mulhern's coaching background also has an international flavor. He has coached several international teams with the United States of America Athletes International program. Mulhern has led trips to Austria, Germany, Paris, Peru and Barbados. These experiences have provided him with the opportunity to experience the international game of basketball and provide summer camps and outreach programs for international youth from many countries. Mulhern earned a bachelor of science degree from Winona (Minn.) State University and a master of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In addition, Mulhern completed his doctoral degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport psychology from the University of Minnesota.

A native of Wykoff, Minn., Mulhern serves as a lecturer in the health and human performance department at UW-Superior. His duties as a lecturer including teaching the following courses: Sport Psychology, Adapted Physical Education, Methods and Curriculum in Secondary Physical Education, and Assessment of the Exceptional Child. In addition, the former Wycat serves as an advisor to students in the HHP department.
 
Mulhern at UW-Superior
Year W L Pct.
2016-17 23 5 .821
2015-16 24 4 .857
2014-15 19 8 .704
2013-14 16 12 .571
2012-13 19 8 .704
2011-12 12 14 .462
2010-11 8 17 .320
2009-10 8 17 .320
2008-09 5 20 .200
2007-08 5 20 .200
2006-07 8 17 .320
Total 149 142 .512