University of Minnesota Athletics
Where Are They Now: Dawn Willoughby
5/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
This feature was published in the most recent Gopher Athletics' Ski-U-Mah magazine. To see this story as it appears in print (complete with fantastic photos) and to read the entire May issue of Ski-U-Mah  click here.
Dawn Willoughby (then Dawn Thompson) came to Minnesota in 1987 from Portage Northern High School (Mich.), where she played on three state championship teams and a club team, which won the 1987 AAU Junior Olympics tournament. She made an immediate impact in Minneapolis, stepping into the starting lineup as a freshman and winning the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award. During her career, Willoughby put herself among Minnesota's all-time leaders in blocks, digs, kills, hitting percentage and assists. Off the court, she was a three-time Big Ten All-Academic Team honoree while pursuing a degree in Athletics Administration.
After graduating from the U of M, Willoughby spent more than a decade working with Procter and Gamble (P&G) and earned her Master's in Business Administration from UCLA before joining Clorox in 2001. At Clorox, she has ascended to become the executive vice president and chief operating office of the company's Cleaning, International, and Professional Products divisions.
How did your volleyball career begin?
I moved to Portage from Indiana in the middle of my ninth grade year. I was six feet tall when I was a freshman, and when the coach saw me in the hallway; he said `Hey, you're going to try out for the volleyball team.Â
Had you ever played volleyball before moving to Michigan?
Yes, I played in middle school but I was terrible. In ninth grade I was still serving underhand. Compare that with my niece who plays today, the girls are now jump serving by that age.
Who took you from terrible to nationally recognized recruit?
My high school coach, Jack Magelssen, who was also my club coach. He created a great environment where raw talent could develop into great players. He was a great communicator when it came to teaching the fundamentals and was always looking for ways to improve the players' skills. He would see what drills the Olympic team was doing and incorporate them into our practices and training. In the summer, during club season, I worked with him teaching summer volleyball camps for the younger players. When you teach others, you also learn a lot yourself.
That first year at Minnesota you came in and started as a freshman, then went on to win the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year award. What do you remember from that season?
When I was getting recruited, the starting middle hitter for the Gophers was a senior and was about to graduate. I knew that if I worked hard over the summer I would have a chance to compete for the starting spot. There were some great players on the team that year and to be able to play right away was an incredible experience.  I didn't expect to win Freshman of the Year. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know there was such an award.  It was a nice recognition, but, more importantly, the team had a strong season.
Fast forward to your senior season and you were named a captain. What did that mean to you?
It was a responsibility that I was eager to take on but knew it would be challenging. We had graduated five seniors my junior year, so it was really a brand-new lineup. It was a tough year to end my career from a win-loss perspective, but it was also building a foundation for the program moving forward. I was proud that I could be part of building that younger team.
How did you choose your major, Athletics Administration?
At that time, we had a unique setup for the athletic department at the U where there was an athletic director for the women's athletics department, Chris Voelz. Seeing this was an inspiration, and I could see myself being a Division I athletic director. I had a background in athletics and a strong interest in business.  Athletics administration combines both. At that time, Minnesota didn't have an Athletic Administration degree, however, through University College, I was able to design my own degree, which was invaluable.
Your initial aspirations were to get into athletic administration, but now you're a C-suite executive at Clorox. What was the first step out the University that sent you on that career path?
P&G recruited on the Minnesota campus in program areas where they saw strong leadership, and athletics was one of them. Judd Haney, a former athletic academic advisor, encouraged me to apply for the P&G internship between my junior and senior year. After working for P&G that summer they offered me a full-time job. I may never have had that opportunity had I not been a student-athlete at Minnesota.
How did you end up making the move from P&G to Clorox?
I had worked in Los Angeles for about four years, and then moved to Cincinnati, which is the world headquarters of P&G. I hadn't realized how much my husband, Steve, and I were in love with California. Clorox is based in Oakland, California. The company's values and how it operates with really top-notch people is very similar to what I valued, so I made the move from P&G to Clorox.
How did your experience as a student-athlete help you succeed in your professional career?
It made a big difference. One of the things student-athletes learn is to balance a number of priorities. There are a lot of demands on the athletic side -- practices, travel and conditioning -- all those things that go into having a strong team. But academics is the core of college experience, and it takes a lot of time to do well in school. Balancing those two things is something that has carried through my whole life. Another lesson I've taken away is a strong sense of team and ensuring I'm playing my part in the broad success of an organization. Back then, it was the volleyball team and how I could play my role in a way that contributed to the success of the team. Now that I'm here in the business world, it's about those people I work with collectively achieving our goals. What I learned when I was a student-athlete at Minnesota has carried through my entire career.
Â