Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2011
Mike Wilton was Cal Poly's women's volleyball coach from 1978-89 and elevated the program to national prominence as he led his final nine Mustang teams to the NCAA Division I playoffs. Three of those teams reached the regional finals and the 1985 squad was ranked No.1 in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Association midway through the season.
Wilton compiled a 292-137 record in 12 seasons at Cal Poly and holds the school record for career wins. Thirteen of his players earned 23 All-American honors, eight claimed all-conference accolades, several were drafted to play professional volleyball and four of his teams earned final top-five national rankings.
Wilton, Big West coach of the year in 1985 and 1989, also has served as head coach at Hawaii and Brigham Young-Hawaii.
At Hawaii for 17 seasons, he led the Warriors to a 307-149r ecord with five Mountain Pacific Sports Federation titles, three trips to the NCAA Final Four, one national championship (2002) and16 of his athletes earned 26 All-American honors, including three national players of the year.
Named national coach of the year three times while at Hawaii, Wilton also coached the Cal Poly men's volleyball club team for three seasons in the late 1970s.
A native of Santa Barbara, Wilton was an undergraduate student at Cal Poly for a brief period of time before he played volleyball at BYU-Hawaii, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in physical education.
He served as an assistant with the men’s volleyball team at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, from 2011-15 and currently is a volunteer assistant coach for the women's program at Utah State. He assisted with the Hawaii-Hilo women’s volleyball program for two seasons (2010 and 2011), was an assistant with the women’s team at BYU in Provo in 2009 and spent two seasons each at Utah Valley (2017-18) and Southern Utah (2015-16).
In all, Wilton has made over 435 public speaking engagements on radio and television. In 2006, he was presented BYU-Hawaii’s Genuine Gold Award, a prestigious award given to BYU-Hawaii graduates who have given outstanding service to their professions, community, nation or church.
Wilton and his wife, Ku’ulei, have five children. Jenny and Aaron played volleyball at Hawaii while Michael played at BYU-Hawaii. Eva played volleyball at Roosevelt High School in Hawaii while Melissa played at Utah State. The Wiltons were presented the Family of the Year Award by the Honolulu City Council in 1996.
Wilton served in the United States Marine Corps after high school and played basketball at Santa Barbara City College. Mike’s father, Willie Wilton, was a highly successful men’s basketball coach at UC Santa Barbara and is a member of the UCSB Athletics Hall of Fame.
