Bill Sullivan begins his eighth season with the Bucs after being promoted to head women’s basketball coach. Sullivan becomes only the fifth head coach for the Buccaneer women’s basketball program, taking over for Nicci Hays-Fort who resigned to take an assistant coaching position at NCAA Division I DePaul University in Chicago, Ill.

A seasoned coach, Sullivan begins his first stint coaching collegiate women’s basketball. For the past seven years, he has served as the associate head coach for the men’s basketball program at Barry under head coach Cesar Odio. Sullivan accepts the position with all the players returning from last year’s team and is excited about their potential, skill, and work ethic in preparation for the Sunshine State Conference Championship in 2007.

During his seven-year tenure as the associate head coach at Barry, he was primarily responsible for the Bucs’ offensive game plan. He has also helped Odio in guiding the men’s program to two SSC tournament finals in 2001 and 2006 as well as the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance in 2005.

Sullivan came to Barry after spending two seasons as the head coach at neighboring St. Thomas University. Both years at St. Thomas, Sullivan’s teams played in the conference title game losing to Embry-Riddle by a combined seven points on their home court in Daytona Beach, Fla. In his last season at STU, his Bobcats upset NAIA powerhouse Life University, who went on to win the NAIA Division I championship, by seven points.

Prior to St. Thomas, Sullivan served as the head coach at Miami-Dade Community College in Kendall for one season. He led the Jaguars to a 16-12 overall mark as well as the conference championship. Sullivan was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year after taking his team to quarterfinals of the Florida Community College/NJCAA Region VIII tournament.

Before joining the collegiate ranks, Sullivan served as the boys head coach at Coral Gables High for 15 years. While at CGHS, he led his team to four district titles, three district runner-ups and a sub-regional championship. With the Cavaliers, he was selected to coach the Dade County South All-Stars four times and the Dade County Superintendent’s All-Stars once and earned county Coach of the Year honors from the Miami News in 1985.

While at Coral Gables, Sullivan also served as the head coach for the girls’ golf program where he led the team to the GMAC, District and Regional championships and was selected as Dade County’s 2005 Girls’ Golf Coach of the Year by the Miami Herald.

In 2001, Sullivan was the head coach of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Girls’ Basketball program in the National AAU Qualifying Tournament in Boynton Beach, Fla., where his team finished in first place with a 5-0 record.

Sullivan’s first head coaching position began at Southwest Miami High where he spent two seasons. He was the Dade County Coach of the Year in 1979-80, his first season of coaching, selected by the Miami News as voted by area coaches and members of the media.

In his 17 years as a high school head coach, he posted a 300-202 career record. He began his coaching career at Miami Edison High where he guided the junior varsity team to a 19-4 record in one season.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Sullivan received his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Georgetown College in 1973 and his master’s degree in educational technology from Nova Southeastern in 2000. He and his wife Debra (Fairfax, Va.) have two daughters: Nikki and Amber.

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