FARMVILLE, Va. – The Longwood athletics department announced the promotion of Makayla Whittaker to the position of Director of Athletics Marketing & Fan Experience as well as the Head Coach of Lancer Cheerleading today.
 
Whittaker, a Longwood alum, has worked in the athletics department since shortly after her graduation. 
 
Over the past two academic years, she has been instrumental in group sales at the Joan Perry Brock Center along with other community engagement initiatives. She was a lead contact for Education Day, an event that saw local schools bring more than 700 students onto the campus for a women's basketball game, along with a variety of other events such as the Teddy Bear toss, working the Heart of Virginia festival, Youth Day at Buddy Bolding Stadium for baseball, the Student-Athlete Awards Banquet and more.
 
In that same time frame, the Lancers have enjoyed tremendous crowd support—ranking second in the Big South in attendance—that has led to the top home court advantage in the league. 
 
In addition, she assumes the role of Head Coach of the cheerleading team that went to its first competition in team history this past spring. As an assistant, Whittaker was instrumental in helping the team finish in the top 10 in their first appearance at the NCA College Nationals.
 
As a student, Whittaker was a four-year member of the cheerleading team who was a team captain in each of her last two seasons. A flyer, she went to both conference tournaments and the NCAA National Tournament when both the men and women qualified for March Madness for the first time in 2022.
 
Whittaker graduated in 2023 with her degree in kinesiology with a concentration in health education.