Scott Kawall, MSEd
Scott Kawall, MSEd
Title: Director Student Involvement, Athletic Director
Phone: 815-825-9837
Email: skawall@kish.edu

Scott Kawall is in his seventh year as the Director Student Involvement, Athletic Director at Kishwaukee College.  His tenure has seen success with his coaching staffs assisting a variety of programs in making it to NJCAA Nationals, as a team or as a student-athlete, in five of the past six years. This includes the DI Womens Golf team getting 15th in NJCAA Nationals in 2021-2022, numerous DII Cross Country Women and Men individuals going to Nationals and even Esports student-athletes getting to the semifinals of NJCAAE Nationals in Hearthstone, MarioKart8, Call of Duty plus a 15th place national appearance in Smash Bros Ultimate.  In the fall of 2023, the Mens Soccer team won the Arrowhead Conference for the first time in program history. Hired in January 2017, Kawall brings a broad spectrum of student life experience, both as a student and as a student-athlete himself at the two-year and four-year level and as a professional in higher education.  Under his direction, the Kishwaukee Athletic program offerings have grown from just three programs in 2016-2017 to fourteen programs as well as tripling student athletes involvement from just around sixty student-athletes in 2016-2017 to over 170 student-athletes for the 2023-2024 season.    In the classroom, Kish student-athletes continue to excel as the Kougars have had over forty student-athletes receive All-Academic honors through the Arrowhead Conference and/or NJCAA in 2022-2023 compared to just nine honorees in 2016-2017.

Additionally, Kawall has worked closely with senior leadership, the Board of Trustees and the Foundations Office at Kishwaukee College to help approve numerous renovations on campus for Athletics since 2019. These include renovated women's and men's home locker rooms, new digital scoreboard and scorer's table for the gym. A redesigned gym floor, a Traditions Wall to honor past student-athletes and coaches, a new athletic training room and athletic trainer office, new soccer press box, new softball dugouts, fencing and surrounding ADA accessible areas around the field plus a new Esports Arena on campus.  In the community, he has forged partnerships with area golf course and bowling alleys to host practice time and competitive events while supporting his coaching staff in camps, fundraising and recruitment needs.  Kishwaukee College Athletic programs always give back to the community each year in some fashion including toy drives, clothing drives, parades and other community functions.  Also, Kishwaukee Athletics continues to host the Sycamore HS Spartan Cross County Invitational for approximately twenty high schools since 2021 while also hosting the 2021 NJCAA Region 4 Cross Country Championships and the NJCAA Region 4, Division I Baseball Championships twice the past six years.

A graduate from Waubonsee Community College where he played baseball, for NJCAA Hall of Fame Coach Dave Randall, Kawall also holds a B.A. in History Education from the University of San Diego where he received a full-ride athletic scholarship for baseball to play for NCAA Hall of Fame Coach John "JC" Cunningham. In addition, he has an M.S.Ed. from Northern Illinois University in Adult and Continuing Education. He was inducted into the Waubonsee Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015. Coach Kawall has spent over twenty seven years coaching baseball and softball at the college, high school and travel/club levels while building a career in education administration.  This included stints as Kishwaukee College's Head Softball Coach, as an Assistant Coach for the 2015 IHSA State Runner Up Somonauk High School Softball team and the head coach of the #5 nationally ranked USSSA 18u "A" girls travel softball team in recent years.

Prior to Kishwaukee College, Kawall’s experience includes positions at Waubonsee Community College as a Recruitment and Retention Specialist and Intramural Director; Assistant Director of Admissions for Rockford University; Campus Director/President at ITT Tech; Director of Admission at Westwood College; and Center Director (accelerated learning programs) at Concordia University in Mequon, WI.

Kawall’s extensive experience perfectly positions him to be the first Director of Student Involvement at Kishwaukee College. "This position is a great opportunity to relaunch and re-shape student programming at Kish. By gathering student activities, intramurals and athletics under one umbrella, we can connect with the students in a new way.  We have come a long way in just five years here at Kishwaukee.  We have grown our intercollegiate sports teams from just three in 2017 to fourteen in 2020-2021 while student clubs and organizations have been as high as 24 active on campus."

Since joining the College staff, Kawall has been working with his coaching staff to emphasize recruitment of local athletes to the College’s Athletic Programs. "We are committed to making the local community and the campus community proud of Athletics and Student Activities as we move forward. I am very thankful for a very supportive President, Senior Leadership team and Board of Trustees to allow us the opportunities that we have been given the past five and a half years but also excited about those opportunities that are ahead of us for Student Involvement at Kish!”  Kawall resides in Somonauk with his wife and children.