Wildcats Bring Home Denise Dillon
The Broomall, PA native has won three CAA Coach of the Year awards and is now headed to return home to Villanova where she played basketball under Perretta. (Greg Carroccio/Drexel Athletics).
With her reputation as a coach and knowledge of Villanova’s tradition as a player, Dillon is the perfect fit to take over for her mentor, Harry Perretta, as the next coach of Villanova’s Women’s basketball program.
Article by Dave Nguyen, AKSM Sports
VILLANOVA, PA - After a long search, the Villanova Wildcats would like to welcome back former alum Denise Dillon (’96) as the fifth head coach in the history of Villanova’s Women Basketball program. She takes over after coaching 17 seasons at Drexel University.
For more than four decades, Harry Perretta has manned the sidelines for the Wildcats. Now, one of his former players has taken the reigns after a remarkable tenure at Drexel.
In Dillon’s 17 years she is the winning-est head coach in Drexel’s history with a record of 329-204. Her teams have won 20 or more games seven times, four CAA regular season championships and five conference championship appearances. Dillon earned CAA coach of the year four times, including most recently in the 2019-20. This past season the Dragons went 23-7, 16-2 in CAA play, including a 13-game wining streak, the third longest in program history.
As a player under Perretta, Dillon scored 1,355 points and corralled 677 rebounds, resulting in an ALL-BIG EAST honoree and selected as an All-Big 5 selection three times. She was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 2004 and racked up a number awards in 2012, including the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame and the Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame.
In her press conference on Friday, Perretta is extremely pleased that Dillon is the next head coach, especially because she is one of his former players.
“Words cannon express how excited I am that Denise has been given this opportunity,” said Perretta. “to have one of my former players take over the program is something that makes me extremely proud. She has done a phenomenal job at Drexel over the last 17 years and she is ready for this next challenge in her career.”
Drexel had a winning record in 11 of the past 12 seasons under Dillon, including the 2009 CAA regular season title and 24 wins, a then-program record. That season included a win over Old Dominion, who were the 17-time defending CAA Champions and had their 50-game conference tournament winning streak. Drexel went on to defeat James Madison on its home court and won Drexel’s first CAA title, earning an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, also a first in their program’s history.
During her tenure, Dillon has coached 27 players to All-CAA teams, three CAA Rookies of the Year, two CAA Players of the year, an AP All-American, the layering scorer in Philadelphia women’s basketball history and the first player in Drexel history to be selected in the WNBA Draft.
With her reputation as a coach and knowledge of Villanova’s tradition as a player, Dillon is the perfect fit to take over for her mentor, Harry Perretta, as the next coach of Villanova’s Women’s basketball program.