Coaching Staff
DeAnn Akins | Head Volleyball Coach
DeAnn Akins enters her first season at the helm of the Wartburg Volleyball program in 2025.
Akins comes to Wartburg from Coe College where she has led the program since 2006. The Kohawks have won five A-R-C regular season championships and three A-R-C tournament titles. They also have made four appearances in the NCAA tournament. She has 388 victories in her 19 seasons at the helm.
Akins has coached over 60 All-Conference performers, three offensive conference MVPs, and 12 All-Americans. She has received the A-R-C Coach of the Year honor five times. Coe earned an AVCA team academic award for the last 14 years.
Prior to Coe, Akins spent the 2005 season as the director of volleyball operations at the University of Iowa.
Prior to working at Iowa, Akins led Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids to its first ever NJCAA Division II National Championship in 2003. Akins spent two seasons with the Eagles, won back-to-back conference and regional titles and was 81-25 overall. She was named NJCAA Division II District C Coach of the Year in both 2003 and 2004 and was the 2003 AVCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year.
Akins, a native of Waverly, Iowa, worked as an assistant coach at Wartburg College during the 2002 season. She helped lead the Knights to their first 30-win season, first Iowa Conference title and the program's highest ever ranking at No. 7.
As a collegiate student-athlete, Akins began her career at the University of South Dakota before transferring to Northern Iowa. She played on the 1997 Panther team, then served as a student/volunteer assistant for four seasons. During that time, UNI won four consecutive Missouri Valley Conference titles and made four NCAA National Tournament appearances.
Jennifer Walker | Assisstant Volleyball Coach
Jennifer Walker enters her 28th season at Wartburg in 2025, and is the program's all-time winningest head coach. Walker has helped lead Knights Volleyball to nine of its most successful seasons ever in her 27 years at the helm. The 32 wins in 2012 set a new school record, and the 2021 team finished the regular season undefeated. The 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2021 teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Walker was 588-305 in her 27 years at Wartburg. She helped to guide the Knights to conference Regular-Season Championships in 2002, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and won the Conference Tournament in 2002, 2003, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2021. Walker won Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2002, 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2021. She was named the AVCA Regional Coach of the Year in 2021.
She has coached 17 All-Americans, 34 All-Region players, and 82 All-Conference players.
The head coach of the Knights has been no stranger to success in her athletic career. She was a member of two NCAA Division III National Championship softball teams in 1991 and 1993 at Central College and earned All-American honors her junior and senior seasons. She was also a co-captain of both the volleyball and softball teams during her senior year.
Walker came to Wartburg from Olivet College in Michigan, where she had been head women's volleyball and softball coach. She joined the Olivet staff in 1997 as an assistant professor in health and wellness along with her coaching duties.
After graduating from Central, she earned a M.S. degree in exercise and sport science at Iowa State University, where she was also a teaching assistant.