Welker Named New Assistant Coach
9/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-- Former Bowling Green assistant women's gymnastics coach Shannon Welker has been hired as the new assistant women's gymnastics coach at the University of Michigan, head coach Bev Plocki announced Monday (Sept. 15).
Welker replaces former assistant coach Louis Robinson Jr., who left the program to return to his club gym in Ohio.
Welker spent one year as an assistant at Bowling Green after nine years as the head women's gymnastics coach and program director at the St. Louis Gymnastic Center in Missouri. While with the Falcons, Welker focused on the vault and uneven bars, helping send a pair of athletes to the NCAA Regionals for the first time in program history.
A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Welker was a four-year standout on the men's gymnastics team (1993-97). He was a three-year team captain, an NCAA All-American in 1996 and was the school's athlete of the year his senior season. Welker was also a diver from 1993-94.
He spent a year (1997-98) as an assistant men's gymnastics coach for his alma mater and, in 2005, was inducted into the University of Illinois at Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame.
Welker earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology.
Welker and his wife, Molly, have a three-year-old son named Ian and a five-month-old son named Brendan.
Contact: Richard Retyi (734) 763-4423
