Bill Cilento

Biography

Bill Cilento enters his 17th year at Wake Forest in 2026, after being promoted to Associate Head Coach in January 2019. He works primarily with the Demon Deacon hitters and infielders. Cilento has helped 64 players get drafted or sign pro contracts over the last 12 years, including 14 Deacs drafted among the top 50 picks and nine first rounders since 2020 in Marek Houston (2025), Ethan Conrad (2025), Chase Burns (2024), Nick Kurtz (2024), Seaver King (2024), Rhett Lowder (2023), Brock Wilken (2023), Ryan Cusick (2021) and Jared Shuster (2020). Cilento mentored former San Francisco Giant Mac Williamson, who was recruited to Wake Forest as a pitcher. After transitioning to outfield, Williamson went on to earn All-ACC honors and was drafted in the third round before working his way to the MLB. He also oversaw the development of National Player of the Year Will Craig, the first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016. After not making an all-conference team his freshman year, Craig's improvement earned him ACC Player of the Year honors in 2015 and made him a unanimous first team All-American in 2016. Stuart Fairchild and Gavin Sheets were both All-Americans and top-50 overall selections in the 2017 MLB Draft. Cilento guided Bobby Seymour en route to ACC Player of the Year honors in 2019 as Seymour led the ACC in hitting and led the nation with 92 RBIs. The 2019 Deacs led the ACC with 7.84 runs per game, also batting .289 as a team with 77 homers. Wake Forest has had numerous