Saints Nation has two new head coaches for its varsity programs.
The St. Clair College Athletics and Recreation Department is happy to announce that Dwayne Dawson has been hired as the next Varsity Women's Softball Head Coach, and Josh Zilles will assume the Cross-Country Head Coach position, effective immediately.
Dawson hails from Wheatley, Ont. and spent the last five years as an Assistant Coach with the Saints Softball staff starting in 2019, and primarily working with the infielders. During that span he helped St. Clair win two OCAA regular season pennants, five provincial medals – including a pair of OCAA titles (2022 & 2023) – and four Canadian Collegiate Softball Association podiums that were highlighted by two national championships in 2022 and 2023. St. Clair amassed a 95-19 record during those five regular seasons and compiled a 128-30 overall tally.
Prior to joining St. Clair, Dawson coached locally for 14 years, spending nine years with the Windsor Lady Expos (2007-15), four with the Windsor Wildcats (2016-19) in addition to a season with the Amherstburg Cardinals covering age groups from U10 through U18. Dawson has helped those teams reach three Canadian Championships, including one at the U14 level and two at the U16 level. Both those U16 Bantam squads finished fifth in Canada out of 20 qualifying teams.
Dawson has twice led teams to American World Series events including 2008 in Orlando, Florida at the 10U level and 2015 in Ocean City, Maryland at the 16U level. In 2019, he served as a Pool Coach and Team Ontario talent evaluator in preparation for the Canada Summer Games.
Since joining St. Clair, Dawson has continued to work in the club system with the LaSalle Athletics program and was the 2024 U17 Head Coach that accomplished a Provincial Championship and an Eastern Canadian bronze medal.
Dawson is also personally quite accomplished on the diamond. He played locally for Wheatley and the Windsor Selects, eventually winning a 1989 Canada Summer Games gold medal as a member of Team Ontario, which springboarded him to a spot on Team Canada roster that year.
Dawson earned a scholarship to NCAA Division I Cleveland State University where he received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering. He was later drafted as a pitcher by the Houston Astros in the 22nd round of the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft where spent time with Auburn in the New York-Pennsylvania League (Short-Season A) and Quad Cities in the Midwest League (A).
He qualified for several National Championships as a member of the Windsor Selects and Tecumseh Thunder in addition to winning a pair of Senior Canadian titles with the famed Windsor Chiefs.
"Dwayne has been an important part of Saints Softball's tremendous recent success. He has a wealth of experience and is highly respected amongst his peers and the athletes he's coached," said St. Clair Director of Athletics and Recreation, Reid Innes. "We're excited to have Dwayne take the lead in helping write the next chapter for our program."
Zilles takes over Cross-Country program
Josh Zilles is a Kitchener, Ont. native and competed for the University of Windsor Cross-Country team as well as the Track and Field programs for six seasons while attaining an Honours level Bachelor of Human Kinetics degree. He later earned a Master of Science in Kinesiology and Health.
Zilles was named the Lancer Cross-Country Team MVP following the 2021 season, which included an 11th Place finish at the OUA Provincial Championships capped by an 18th place result at the U SPORTS National Championships. Zilles was recognized three times as an Academic All-Canadian for his efforts in the classroom and represented Canada while running in the International University Sports Federation (FISU) games in 2019.
For the last two years, Zilles was the Assistant Distance Coach for the University of Windsor after serving as Intern with their program, where he analyzed key performance indicators in collaboration with their Centre for Human Performance and Health that created evidence-based improvements for their athletes.
He has also been an Exercise Performance Consultant for Pro-Active Fitness Analytics since 2023, giving direction for improving the physiologic processes that limits sports performance for their clients. In addition, Zilles has been working as a Running Distance Coach for StrideWise Running based out of Toronto for the past year, which provides services to runners and endurance athletes of all levels.
Zilles replaces the recently retired Paul Boots, who stepped back after leading the Saints for the past 10 years.
"We're very excited for Josh to take the lead of Saints Cross-Country," said Innes. "We're confident that his experience as a student-athlete and coach, paired with his passion for the sport, will help him continue building on our program's strong foundation of success."