University of West Alabama

The 2012-13 season will be Shannon Houlihan's first season as the head cross country and track & field coach at St. Catherine University. Houlihan spent the past two seasons serving as an assistant coach with the Wildcats, coaching the sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers on the track team.  During that time the Wildcats set five school records in the sprint events and had five all-conference performers and one conference champion. 

Prior to joining the Wildcats, Houlihan spent two seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Smith College in Massachusetts.  She was the event coach for the sprints, hurdles and jumps.  While at Smith, Houlihan also earned a Master of Science in Exercise & Sport Studies.

Prior to her stint at Smith, Houlihan was an assistant track & field coach at Williams College in Massachusetts. As the jumps coach at Williams, she was a part of the of 2007 NCAA Women's Indoor National Championship team and coached four NESCAC Individual Champions and three NCAA All-Americans.

Houlihan's coaching career began in Pennsylvania where she had stints as an assistant coach at Washing & Jefferson College (2005-06) and Lafayette College (2004-05). Combined at both places Houlihan worked with five conference event champions and four national qualifiers.

Houlihan graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a degree in Art History.  While at Oberlin, she was a two-time national qualifier in the triple jump and was captain of the track & field hockey teams.