The NCAA Record

November 17, 1997

Calendar

Catholic selects Vonavita as softball coach

Catholic has picked Steve Bonavita to head the university's women's softball program.

Bonavita, a 1995 Catholic graduate, has been an assistant men's basketball coach at the university since 1995.

He was team manager for the men's basketball team for three years before being named assistant coach. He also has worked at numerous basketball camps in the Washington, D.C., area, including camps at Georgetown and Maryland.

Bonavita also has served as codirector of intramurals at Catholic.

GENERAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Peggy Gordon Elliott appointed president at South Dakota State effective January 1. Elliott has been senior fellow and acting vice-president at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

Gary Gray, athletics director at Montana State-Billings, resigned effective upon the hiring of a new AD. Gray, who has been director for the past three years, will remain at the university as professor and chair of the department of health and physical education, director of the employee wellness program, supervisor of recreational activities and manager of the physical education building.

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Cindy Parks named assistant athletics director for student-athlete services at Central Missouri State, succeeding Crista Troester, who resigned to take a position at Tulsa. Parks has been coordinator and then manager of Central Missouri State's extended campus program since 1993 ... Bob Grant, Brenda Day and Robert Noss appointed assistant ADs at Wright State. Grant, senior development director for Wright State athletics since 1993, was promoted to assistant AD for development; Day, athletics department academic advisor at the school since 1993, was named assistant AD for student and academic support; and Noss, sports information director at the school since 1992, was named assistant AD for sports information.

COACHES

Men's basketball--San Francisco signed head coach Philip Mathews to a five-year contract extension through the 2002-03 season.

Men's basketball assistants--Brandon Johnson hired as assistant coach at Clayton State. Johnson has been coaching at the high-school level ... Gilbert "G. R." Myers named assistant coach at Delaware. A 1997 Delaware graduate, Myers succeeds Shane Brey, who left after one year as restricted-earnings coach to take a position with Reebok, Inc., in Massachusetts ... John Barnes selected as assistant coach at Michigan Tech, succeeding Christian Wilson, who resigned to take a position at Western Michigan. A member of the Michigan Tech basketball team before graduating in 1995, Barnes has coached at Lake Superior State and last season competed for the Kolding Basketball Club in Denmark.

Women's basketball assistants--Natalie Perrino and Autumn Rademacher appointed assistant coaches at Western Michigan. Perrino was an assistant coach last season at Loyola (Illinois). Rademacher, who will be restricted-earnings coach, was a four-year standout on the women's basketball team at Detroit ... Jerry Evans hired as assistant coach at Albright. Evans spent the past six years as a head coach at the secondary school level in Pennsylvania ... Kris Anderson hired at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Field hockey--David Foley, an assistant coach at Wake Forest in 1996, named head coach at Catholic. He has played for England at the international level.

Women's gymnastics--Terry Casperson appointed interim coach at Western Michigan. Since 1994, Casperson has served as women's competitive team coach for the Greater Kalamazoo World of Gymnastics Club

Women's gymnastics assistant--Jeff Gothard hired as assistant women's gymnastics coach at Pittsburgh, succeeding Steve Craig, who resigned. Gothard most recently was president, owner and head coach of Champion Gymnastics in Louisville, Kentucky.

Men's lacrosse--Brooks Singer hired as head coach for Catholic's inaugural season in the sport. Singer was a United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association all-star at Arizona and is a third-year law student at Catholic.

Women's lacrosse--Jeanne Harrington selected as head coach for Catholic's inaugural season in women's lacrosse. Harrington led Loyola (Maryland) to an appearance in the National Collegiate Women's Lacrosse Championship in 1994.

Men's and women's lacrosse assistant--Mike Murphy named assistant coach at Pfeiffer. He was an assistant at Merrimack last season.

Men's soccer--Scott Racek hired at Catholic. Racek played goalkeeper for Bucknell from 1987 through 1990 and has coached at the high-school level.

Women's soccer--Steve Braun, an assistant at Mary Washington last year, named head coach at Catholic.

Men's and women's swimming and diving--Chris Kelley appointed diving coach for the men's and women's swimming teams at Bradley. He has eight years of competitive diving experience, including four as a diver for Illinois-Chicago.

Women's tennis--Kathy Barnard resigned as head coach at Cornell.

Men's and women's track and field assistant--Llewellyn Starks appointed assistant coach at Syracuse.

Women's volleyball--Midwestern State announced it will not renew the contract of head coach Jimmy Picht. Picht is in his fifth year at the Lady Indians' helm, where he compiled an 84-76 record, including a 9-21 mark this season ... Boise State appointed Mike Waller interim head coach, succeeding Darlene Bailey, who resigned ... Peg Worthington resigned at Gallaudet.

Wrestling assistant--Paul Fitzpatrick joined the Brown wrestling staff as assistant coach. A 1995 Brown graduate, Fitzpatrick wrestled for four years and played football for two years.

STAFF

Compliance coordinator--Chris Reynolds named to the new position of coordinator of athletics legislative compliance at Western Michigan. Reynolds has been assistant compliance coordinator at Michigan State since June.

Media relations assistants--Kelley Halliburton and Doug Hoffman appointed assistant media relations directors at Indiana State. Halliburton was an intern in the sports information office at Florida for the past two years and Hoffman spent the past four years as an assistant in the sports information department at Wyoming.

Sports information directors--Mickey Smith named sports information director at Belmont. He was SID at Lewis for the past three years ... Devlin Pierce appointed SID at Georgia State. He was assistant director of media relations at College of Charleston.

Athletic trainer--Marvin Trinkaus named head trainer at Georgia State.

Etc.

CONFERENCE MEMBERS

CORRECTION

Ann Quinn-Zobeck's title was reported incorrectly in the fall 1997 issue of the Sports Sciences Education Newsletter, which was inserted in the October 27 issue of The NCAA News. Quinn-Zobeck is assistant director of student services at Northern Colorado.

Notables