The NCAA Record

May 18, 1998

Bennett named head women's golf coach

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville named Larry Bennett as its first head women's golf coach. The school plans to field a varsity team during the 1998-99 season.

Bennett has been with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville since 1988. As the current assistant director of campus recreation, he assists in the administration of the indoor recreation facility and outdoor recreation area. He also has worked as coordinator of campus recreation and assistant to the director of campus recreation.

Bennett holds the position of state director of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association through 1999. He also is commissioner and finance committee chairperson for the Collinsville Area Recreation District. In 1994, he was a member of the logistics committee of the U. S. Olympic Festival and he has worked as regional site coordinator for the Prairie State Games.

Bennett is a graduate of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Theodore A. Bickart selected as president at Colorado School of Mines. Bickart has served as dean of the college of engineering at Michigan State ... Western Michigan named Elson S. Floyd president, effective August 1. Floyd was executive vice-chancellor at North Carolina ... Andrea J. Lee, interim president at Marygrove College, appointed president at St. Catherine ... Assumption hired Thomas R. Plough as president. Plough has been president at North Dakota State ... Senior vice-president at Benedict, George W. Reid, selected as president at Kentucky State ... Gonzaga named Robert J. Spitzer president. Spitzer is the former director of the Institute of Professional Ethics and associate profes-sor of philosophy at Seattle Pacific ... William R. Johnson appointed chief executive operations officer at Lamar, effective April 15. Johnson also has been selected as interim president at the school, effective May 31.

DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Southern Colorado's Tony Taibi resigned to accept a position of controller with D. D. Marketing, Inc. Taibi has been been athletics director since March 1996 ... Joe Baker named director of athletics at Wisconsin-La Crosse. Baker succeeds interim athletics director Jane Meyer and Bridget Belgiovine, who resigned last October to become assistant chief of staff for Division III at the NCAA national office. Since 1991, Baker has worked as assistant director of athletics for operations and manager of athletics facilities at Alabama-Huntsville ... Jose A. Sotolongo named director of athletics development at Florida International. Sotolongo has served as associate director for development, memberships and promotions at the Zoological Society of Florida for the past two years ... North Carolina-Pembroke announced the retirement of Raymond B. Pennington, athletics director for the past 14 years, effective July 31. Pennington will remain at the school as a part-time professor in the health and physical education department.

ASSISTANT ATHLETICS DIRECTOR

Connecticut appointed Neal Eskin assistant athletics director for development. Eskin has been director of marketing and promotions at Maryland since 1991.

COACHES

Baseball--Wally Whittaker, 15-year veteran coach at Stevens Tech, announced retirement plans. Whittaker also has been assistant and head basketball coach, facility coordinator, assistant athletics director, assistant physical education director and assistant men's tennis coach at the school ... Northern Illinois promoted interim coach Frank Del Medico to head coach. Del Medico, who replaces Spanky McFarland, was an assistant with the program in 1996 and 1997 ... Pat Dolan accepted the position of head coach at Belmont Abbey after working as an assistant coach at St. Andrews Presbyterian. Dolan succeeds George Connor, who became athletics director at Forestview (North Carolina) High School.

Basketball--Emmett Davis named head coach at Colgate. Davis, a 12-year assistant at Navy, succeeds Jack Bruen ... UC Davis promoted Brian Fogel to head coach. Fogel was top assistant coach last season and succeeds Bob Williams, who assumed the head coaching post at UC Santa Barbara.

Basketball assistants--Liberty named Otis Hughley and Chad Hankinson as assistant coaches. Hughley spent last season as second assistant at Wright State while Hankinson worked as director of basketball operations at Houston for the past two years ... Walt Fuller accepted the position of assistant basketball coach at Virginia ... Alabama-Birmingham appointed Thomas Johnson as an assistant.

Women's basketball--Duquesne awarded head coach Dan Durkin a contract extension through June 30, 2000. Durkin has been at the helm for the past five seasons and was selected as the 1998 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year ... Illinois-Chicago named Tim Eatman head coach. For the past two years, Eatman has been the recruiting coordinator for the women's squad at Kansas. He replaces Eileen McMahon, who resigned ... Lamar named DeAnn Craft head coach to succeed David McKey, who resigned. Craft most recently worked one season at San Diego State as top assistant and recruiting coordinator ... Barry Street, assistant coach at North Carolina-Greensboro, appointed head coach at Johnson C. Smith ... Carleton interim coach Tammy Metcalf-Filzen promoted to head coach. Metcalf-Filzen guided the team to an 11-14 record last season ... Emporia State promoted Brandon Schneider to head coach to replace Cindy Stein, who became head coach at Missouri. Schneider has been an assistant at the school for three seasons and also has served as recruiting coordinator ... Jennifer Bednarek named head coach at UMBC. Bednarek, who served as the top assistant coach in the program last season, succeeds Kathy Solano.

Women's basketball assistants--UNLV added Lisa Rathbun, Michael Ensley and Staci Shulz as assistant coaches. Rathbun has been assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Cleveland State for three years and Ensley served as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech for the past two seasons. Shulz worked as an assistant coach at Western Illinios last season.

Field hockey--Salem State named Kathy O'Leary as head coach. O'Leary, who succeeds Heidi Begin, will retain her position as head softball coach at the school, a post she has held for the past 11 years.

Football--Assumption added Sean Mahoney as head coach. Mahoney has been head coach at the high-school level for the last four years. He replaces Mark Garrett, who resigned.

Football assistants--Darrell Bevell and Adam Gonzaga join the Connecticut staff. Bevell, who most recently served as a graduate assistant coach at Iowa State, will coach wide receivers, and Gonzaga will coach defensive ends after serving as defensive line coach at Lafayette last season ... Bob Colbert appointed offensive coordinator at Bridgewater. Colbert, who was quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Massachusetts in 1996 and 1997, also will coach the offensive line ... Catholic added Bob Larson as defensive coordinator, Billy Harris as running backs coach and Chris Yangas as wide receivers coach.

Men's golf--Tommy Wilson resigned as head coach at Texas Tech.

Men's and women's lacrosse--Frank Rotunda, lacrosse coach at Stevens Tech for 21 years, announced plans to retire. Rotunda also was athletics director at Stevens Tech from 1989 to March 1997, and worked one year as assistant athletics director and two years as assistant lacrosse coach ... Carl Runk resigned as head men's coach at Towson after 31 years. Runk, who closes his coaching tenure with a 261-161 record, will retain a faculty position in the school's department of kinesiology.

Women's soccer--Tammy DeCesare accepted the position of women's soccer coach at Hamline ... Catholic selected Alexander Czajkowski as head coach. Czajkowski, who played for the Baltimore Blast of the Major Indoor Soccer League, served as an assistant with the men's team last season.

Women's softball--Marywood's Jack Dabney resigned as head coach after four seasons in order to devote time to furthering his education. The school selected four-year assistant Nicole Mallory to succeed Dabney ... Bobby Holloway announced plans to retire as head coach at Tennessee Tech after 11 years. Holloway will stay with the program for one more season as an assistant ... Truman State head coach Dan Zimmer will step down to focus full-time on his responsibilites as intramurals director at the school. Zimmer guided the program for nine years and compiled a 135-186 record.

Men's and women's tennis--Hamilton appointed William A. Austin director of racquet sports, responsible for the men's and women's squash and tennis programs. Austin has been interim director since November 1997.

Men's and women's track and field--Swarthmore announced the resignation of head men's and women's track and cross country coach Ted Dixon to pursue a family business opportunity. Dixon guided women's squads to indoor championships in 1997 and 1998 and an outdoor title in 1998.

Men's and women's track and field assistant--Tony Cox named assistant track and cross country coach at Tennessee Tech. Cox has competed in more than 500 races and ran the Boston Marathon in 1996 and 1998.

STAFF

Sports information director--John Lyon will retire after 32 years as sports information director at Stevens Tech. Lyon also has coached basketball and squash at the school ... Catholic selected Chris McManes as sports information director. McManes has been a sportswriter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and served as special assistant sports information director at Catholic from 1986-92.

Strength and conditioning coach--Craig Fitzgerald accepted the position of strength and conditioning coach at Catholic.

NOTABLES

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Inc., selected Bradley Faircloth as the recipent of the 1998 Outstanding Football Official Award, a recognition given to an official who has shown sportsmanship, integrity and character, and has contributed to the sport of football. Faircloth, who officiated more than 200 football games in more than 25 years, currently serves as supervisor of football officials and assistant commissioner for the Atlantic Coast Conference. The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Inc., also recognized Marino Casem with the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award, presented to an individual who positively affects the game of amateur football. Presently, Casem is director of athletics at Southern and has coached at Alcorn State, Alabama State and Utica Junior College.

Gymnast Kim Arnold named winner of the Honda Award as the top female athlete in her sport. Arnold, a senior at Georgia, was named Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Year and garnared conference championships on the floor, beam and in the all-around competition. She also earned presidential scholar and academic all-Southeastern Conference recognition.

Navy's Hassan Booker selected as the recipient of the second annual Chip Hilton Award given to the Division I men's basketball player who demonstrates personal character on and off the court.

Mount St. Mary's (Maryland) head basketball coach Jim Phelan named winner of the Clair Bee Award, presented to the coach who overcomes obstacles, inspires others and navigates pressure situations with grace.

DEATHS