Millikin Athletics

Dylan Lasher joined the Millikin Athletics staff in December 2018, serving as the first ever men’s volleyball head coach in Millikin University. The 2019-20 marked the program’s first year of competition in the College Conference of Illinois (CCIW).

In his first season as head coach at Millikin, Lasher recruited 15 men to compete in the inaugural season, bringing in athletes from the Midwest, east coast, west coast and internationally with an athlete from Guam. In the first season of play, Millikin would record a number of benchmark successes as the season progressed. In their first ever match, the Big Blue would go five sets with Thomas More University, overcoming a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth set. Millikin would also sweep the season series against Rockford University, with the first victory in program history coming against Rockford in the first home game in Millikin University history. Millikin would not lose a single set all season to Rockford, winning both matches 3-0.

With Lasher at the helm, the Big Blue saw multiple players in the top 10 leaders in a number of statistics categories in the conference. Freshman Robbie Maida was fifth in assists, averaging 7.21 per set, Colby Campbell was fifth in blocks averaging 0.78 per set, Jose Gallardo averaged 0.30 aces per set, and most impressively Willie Valentine was second in the conference in digs with 2.82 per set.  

Lasher comes to Millikin after coaching at both the high school and collegiate level in his home state of Pennsylvania, where he was head coach of the women’s volleyball program at Chatham University from 2016-2018. In 2017, Lasher was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Coach of the Year after leading the Cougars to a 17-11, 8-10 PAC record and the program’s first-ever berth in the conference championship tournament. Under Lasher, the Cougars broke over 20 school record, both individual and team based. Prior to taking over as head coach at Chatham, Lasher was the assistant coach for one season.

As well as collegiate coaching experience, Lasher has experience playing at the NCAA Division III level at Thiel College, where he was a four-year player in the program, serving as team captain for two of those seasons. Lasher currently holds the Thiel College record for most career service aces with 74 and has his name on the leaders list in multiple categories.

Lasher earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration; Management, Human Resources from Thiel College.