Whiteman named men's basketball coach at Lincoln College

[July 30, 2008]  Lincoln College has named Kirk Whiteman as the new men's basketball coach. Whiteman is no stranger to the Lynx basketball program since he once served as the assistant to former LC coach B.J. McCullum, who left in May.

Whiteman, a native of Knoxville, is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and holds a master's degree from Western Illinois University. He understands the game from both offensive and defensive positions and relates well to student-athletes due to his personal experience of playing in the collegiate environment.

Whiteman's successful playing career began in high school, where he helped lead his high school to a ranking in the Class A state polls during his senior year. He earned first-team all-state honors his senior year and was named most valuable player of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association all-star game. He was inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame as a player in 2002.

He played at Bowling Green State University in Ohio under the direction of head coach Jim Larranaga, who led George Mason to the Final Four in 2006. Whiteman led BGSU to NIT action twice, where he received Mid-American Conference honors as a freshman. He finished his collegiate career tied as the leader in 3-point field goals made. During his career at BGSU, he was part of the teams that knocked off Kentucky and Michigan State twice.

Whiteman started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Bowling Green before moving on for a short stint of playing basketball in Holland. While working on his master's degree at Western Illinois, he made coaching stops as an assistant coach at Monmouth College and also served as the head boys' coach at Avon High School. In 1998, he joined B.J. McCullum's staff at Lincoln College as an assistant.

Whiteman says he looks forward to returning to the Lynx program. "My family and I are extremely excited to once again be part of the Lincoln College family," he said. "It is an honor to be handed the reins to a basketball program with such great tradition and to be associated with one of the premier private, residential, two-year schools in the nation. Lincoln College has an outstanding reputation for graduating student-athletes and winning basketball games, a reputation that will continue to be the cornerstone of the program."

In addition to coaching basketball, he is also an instructor and men's golf coach at Lincoln College.

Whiteman and his wife, Angie, have three children: two sons, Kameron and Brody, and a daughter, Piper.

[Text from file received from Lincoln College]