New Coaches Lead Lacrosse, Volleyball and Men’s Soccer
With a new year upon us and many new faces around the coaching table, this is an exciting time for the McKendree athletics department. Two veteran multi-sport coaches, Tim Strange and Evelyn Bean, have stepped aside from leading men’s soccer and volleyball to focus on just one sport and three new head coaches have been hired to lead the Bearcat lacrosse, men’s soccer and volleyball squads.
Brittany Poist, Head Coach, Women’s Lacrosse
Brittany was the director of lacrosse at Champions Field House in Rockville, Md. She is a member of the United States Senior National Lacrosse Team and had a standout defender career for the University of Maryland Terrapins, which included a 2009 national semifinal run and 2010 national championship. Brittany began her collegiate playing career at the University of Louisville, where she led the nation with 56 caused turnovers and received All-Rookie team honors from WomensLacrosse.com for the Cardinals.
Lisa Orlet, Head Coach, Volleyball
Lisa was the assistant volleyball coach and interim head coach at Washington University in St. Louis in 2011. She has also served as the strength and conditioning coach and assistant coach at Saint Louis University, head volleyball coach at Althoff Catholic High School, and head volleyball coach at Incarnate Word Academy of St. Louis. She is currently a USA Olympic High Performance Coach at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. On the court, Lisa won four state titles during her high school career at Incarnate Word. She continued her playing career at the University of Kansas, where she was an Academic All-America honoree in 1989 and a member of the Big 8 All- Tournament team in 1990.
Donny Sheehan, Head Coach, Men’s Soccer
Donny joined the Bearcats in 2002 as the assistant men’s and women’s soccer coach. He worked primarily with the goalkeepers, and also served as the head coach of the men’s reserve soccer team. During his tenure overseeing the goalkeepers, the men’s and women’s teams posted overall goals-against averages of 1.19 and 0.88, respectively. Donny was previously an assistant coach at Gibault High School in Waterloo, Ill., and has been a coach in Major League Soccer summer camps. In the summer of 2006, he was coach of the Scott Gallagher under-23 national champions. For the past six years, Donny has worked with Elite FT in Glen Carbon, Ill., giving personal soccer lessons and training. On the field, he was the goalkeeper at Eastern Illinois University, Belleville Area College and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In college, he spent time overseas training with Wimbledon FC of the English Premier League.
