Central’s Wilkinson to leave women’s golf post
PELLA—After piloting Central College to a pair of conference championships and NCAA Division III Championships berths, Tim Wilkinson will leave his position as head women’s golf coach and assistant athletics director for operations in June.
Wilkinson joined the Central staff in 2010 and also worked on the admission staff before becoming assistant athletics director for event management in 2015 and being named to his current post in 2018.
He’s served as women’s golf coach for 10 seasons, guiding the Dutch to league titles in 2016 and 2018 with NCAA tournament appearances the following springs in 2017 and 2019. Central placed first or second in the conference eight times in 10 years. Wilkinson was a three-time league coach of the year and 22 of his players earned all-conference recognition, with two MVPs. He also coached a national tournament runner-up, Sarah Paulson, in 2012.
Prior to coming to Central Wilkinson launched the men’s and women’s golf programs at the University of Great Falls (Mont.), coaching for two seasons while also serving as assistant men’s basketball coach. Earlier he was assistant girls and boys golf coach at Central High School in Fresno, California. He is a University of Cal State-Stanislaus graduate.
Wilkinson will coach the Dutch during the spring season before moving with his family to northern Minnesota where his wife has accepted a new position.
Athletics director Eric Van Kley, who served with Wilkinson at Great Falls as well as at Central, has begun a national search for a replacement.
“Tim has done an amazing job not only as head coach but in overseeing our equipment operations, athletics facility management and, most recently, spearheading planning for the extensive renovations that will begin later this month in the lower level of P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium through the Forever Dutch initiative,” he said. “He will be difficult to replace.”
Van Kley noted that Central has captured 10 conference women’s golf championships.
“We’re committed to building on our championship women’s golf tradition and to serving the young women in our program,” he said. “We have tremendous on-campus golf practice facilities, a premier home course just two miles from campus and some exciting new athletics facilities improvements for our female student-athletes. We are embarking on a search to find the right person to lead our team to success on the national stage.”
