PERRY WILHELM

Mundelein High School

Perry has been a member of the Illinois Athletic Directors Association since 2003.  In that time, he has served the IADA on the executive board as treasurer for three years, and he has been a presenter at the annual conference.

Prior to his fourteen years in athletic administration, Perry began as a physical education teacher at Mundelein High School from 1982 to 1996.  In 1993, Perry moved into his first administrative role as the dean of students at Mundelein, and he ended his first tenure at Mundelein as the interim athletic director in 2003 to 2004.  During his time at Mundelein, Perry was an assistant soccer coach, an assistant football coach, and a head girls tennis coach. Peery even spent 22 years coaching basketball: ten years in the girls basketball program with eight seasons as the head coach and twelve years in the boys’ basketball program with nine seasons as the head coach.  In 2004, Perry moved to Grant High School to become that school’s athletic director and head of the PE, Health, and Drivers’ Ed department.  In 2006, Perry returned to Mundelein to serve as the athletic director, a role he held until his retirement in 2016.  Perry was honored by the IADA by being named Outstanding Class 3A/4A Athletic Director in 2013.  Perry was inducted in the Mundelein Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Lake County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.  

Perry is still involved with educational athletics in his retirement. Perry was a coach at Stevenson High School before moving to Florida. In Florida, he works at Heritage High School as a special education teacher and a volunteer strength coach. He is still coaching, and he works as an on-line health, fitness, and strength coach for a best-selling fitness author. 

Perry lists his biggest accomplishments as an athletic director with the following programs: his work with SALT (Student Athlete Leadership Team), HAC (Hispanic Athletic Counsel); Interactive Hall of Fame, Students with Disabilities, and many other programs that are still a part of everyday life at Mundelein High School.

Trisha Betthauser, current Athletic Director at Stevenson High School, said, “First and foremost, he established a reputation with his coaches as a mentor, one who cares deeply about them as people and professionals. He consistently supported them with feedback regarding their growth and development and focused on the tenets of education-based athletics as fundamental principles for those discussions.”

Current Athletic Director at Mundelein High School, Troy Parola, stated, “Perry is one of a kind and can be in charge of anyone and can do anything and do it with high quality. Perry is a high character individual that you never had to worry about, the student athletes at MHS had a great coach/leader in his time at MHS.”

Perry’s extensive contributions to high school athletics and his dedication to the IADA are a few of the many reasons that led him to this selection as a member of the IADA Hall of Fame.