The NCAA Record

May 25, 1998

Eastern Connecticut State names coach

Eastern Connecticut State promoted Tom York to head coach of women's volleyball and women's softball. York has been interim coach of both squads since last August. With the exception of track and cross country, York becomes the first Eastern Connecticut State coach to serve as head coach for two different sports.

York, who joined Eastern Connecticut State from Defiance, led both the volleyball and softball teams into postseason competition last year. The volleyball team closed its season with an overall mark of 24-12 after earning its fifth straight NCAA Division III tournament bid. York guided the softball team to its first NCAA Division III tournament appearance since 1994.

York succeeds Floretta Crabtree as head women's volleyball coach. Crabtree, who was the school's first women's volleyball coach, retired last summer after leading the program for 22 seasons.

GENERAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Nancy L. Zimpher selected as chancellor at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, succeeding John Schroeder, who has served as chancellor since 1991 and will assume a faculty teaching position at the school. Zimpher has been dean of the college of education at Ohio State ... Wartburg named Jack Ohle president. Ohle has been senior vice-president for external affairs and secretary to the university at Drake ... Walter Harrison, vice-president for university relations and secretary of the university at Michigan, appointed president at Hartford, effective July 1.

DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Mesa State named Doug Schakel to athletics director, replacing Jim Paronto, who resigned. Schakel has been a professor and associate athletics director and is a former head men's basketball coach at the school ... Alaska Fairbanks selected Randy Pitney as interim director of athletics and recreation. Pitney, who replaces Kelly Higgins, will retain his responsibilities as head rifle coach.

ASSISTANT DIRECTORSOF ATHLETICS

Jill LaPoint accepted the position of assistant athletics director at Brown. LaPoint most recently served as assistant athletics director and senior woman administrator at Juniata and succeeds Arlene Gorton, who will retire ... UC Irvine hired Blake Sasaki as assistant athletics director for marketing and promotions. Sasaki, who replaces Charlie Wright, was assistant director of sports marketing and promotions at Weber State for two years.

COACHES

Baseball--Illinois-Chicago will not renew the contract of head coach Dean Refakes. Refakes has been head coach since 1983 and closes his tenure with a 376-467 mark.

Men's basketball--Westminster (Missouri) named Matt Mitchell head coach. Mitchell has been assistant men's basketball coach at Millsaps for five seasons ... Bruce Weber selected as head coach at Southern Illinois. Weber spent 18 years as assistant coach at Purdue ... Loyola (Illinois) appointed Larry Farmer as head coach. Farmer served as first assistant coach at Rhode Island last season.

Men's basketball assistants--Henderson State head coach Eric Bozeman hired as top assistant at Mississippi. Bozeman built a 71-67 record in five years at Henderson State ... Rick Daley chosen as assistant coach at Thiel. Daley, an admissions counselor at the school since January 1997, also will serve as head junior varsity men's basketball coach ... Long Beach State promoted Clyde Vaughan to associate head coach. Vaughan has been an assistant with the program since 1992 ... Xavier named Mark Gaffney assistant coach to replace Michael Davenport, who resigned. Most recently, Gaffney has been the school's CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinator ... Vince Taylor added as an assistant coach at Wyoming. Last season, Taylor served as an assistant at Pittsburgh ... Marywood announced the resignation of assistant men's coach Bryan McGraw.

Women's basketball--Lisa Parsons hired as head coach at Hamline. Parsons, who also will teach in the physical education department, was head women's basketball and head women's golf coach at Dubuque ... Dallas announced the promotion of Julie M. Felderhoff to head coach after having served as an assistant coach last season. Felderhoff succeeds Rachelle Leonard, who resigned to pursue a position with University of Texas at Dallas ... Melissa Taketa, head coach at Pacific (California), named the first head coach at Jacksonville. The school is scheduled to begin competition in the Trans America Athletic Conference during the 1999-2000 season. Taketa amassed 148 wins in 10 years as head coach.

Women's basketball assistants--Erin Royse appointed assistant coach at Idaho. For the past two years, Royse has been a graduate assistant at Northern Arizona ... San Diego chose Erik Johnson and Nadine Mastroleo as assistant coaches. Johnson served as assistant women's basketball coach at Rhode Island for four years and Mastroleo worked as top assistant wom-en's basketball coach at Colgate for three years ... St. Bonaventure added Stacia Rustad and Christopher Mennig as assistant coaches, replacing Sherri Abbey-Nowatzki and Joy Kwasniak. Rustad has been a graduate assistant coach at West Virginia Wesleyan since the 1996-97 season while Mennig has been an assistant at Brown since 1997 ... Sam Dixon appointed assistant coach and Denise Dove named associate head coach at Arizona. Dixon replaces Traci Waites, who assumed the head coaching position at Pittsburgh. Dove also works as recruiting coordinator at the school.

Field hockey--Oswego State announced the hiring of Danya Pilgrim as head coach. Pilgrim served as assistant coach at Wittenberg last season.

Football assistants--Bob Chesney appointed defensive line coach at Susquehanna, succeeding Dan Alderson, who will continue as a defensive assistant coach. Chesney has been head football coach at Lourdes Regional High School from 1983-1997 and is the school's most victorious coach with a 84-75-2 mark ... Centre promoted graduate assistant coach Bryan H. Cross to offensive coordinator.

Men's and women's golf--Jeff Mitchell named director of golf at Texas Tech. Mitchell, currently head women's golf coach at the school, will oversee both the men's and women's squads in his new post.

Ice hockey--Mercyhurst awarded 10-year head coach Rich Gotkin a two-year contract extension.

Men's lacrosse--Pete Ginnegar hired as Gannon's first men's lacrosse head coach. The school is slated to begin competition in 1999. Ginnegar carries a 106-88 career record and most recently coached at Mercyhurst.

Women's lacrosse--Le Moyne announced the appointment of Patty Kloidt as head coach of women's lacrosse. Kloidt, who served as assistant coach for the women's soccer and lacrosse squads at Amherst last season, also will serve as head women's soccer coach ... Sharon Pfluger will resume responsibility as the head coach of the lacrosse team at College of New Jersey, replacing Jennifer Hart. The lacrosse and field hockey programs were divided last season. Pfluger, who also serves as head women's field hockey coach at the school, has built a combined record of 437-39-5.

Men's soccer--Westminster (Missouri) selected Joel Wallace as head coach. As interim head coach at MacMurray last season, Wallace captured conference coach-of-the-year honors after guiding the team to conference league and tournament titles.

Men's soccer assistant--Leo Chappel added as assistant coach at North Carolina-Charlotte. Chappel, who served two years as assistant men's coach at Ohio Wesleyan, replaces Ray Colado.

Women's soccer--Northwood promoted Doug Carter to head women's coach. Carter, formerly an assistant coach, succeeds Ron Hebert, who will continue as head men's lacrosse coach and also will be responsible for the school's intramur-al programs ... Marywood named Andrew Smith as head coach.

Women's soccer assistants--Aaron Rodgers and Karrie Miller appointed assistant coaches at Alabama. Rodgers worked as an assistant coach at South Alabama for two years. Miller, who replaces Melissa Mitchell, has been an assistant coach at South Carolina for three years ... Maryland announced the hiring of Katherine Remy as assistant coach. Since 1996, Remy has been an assistant women's soccer coach, coordinator in the office of health education and assistant academic coordinator for athletics at Pennsylvania ... Karen Sandstrom accepted the position of assistant women's soccer coach at Marywood.

Women's swimming and diving--Florida appointed Gregg Troy head women's swimming coach. Troy has been head coach at the Bolles School and its club program for 20 years and was head coach for the U.S. women's team at the 1998 FINA World Championships in Perth, Australia. Troy also was an assistant coach at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Men's and women's swimming and diving assistants--Kevin Makarowski and Christa Zimmerman selected as graudate assistant coaches at Alfred, succeeding Marcin Wedlarski and Alethea Sundlof. Makarowski was an assistant swimming coach at Hamilton last season and Zimmerman has been second-in-charge life guard at Tuscarora State Park beach. Sundlof will remain to work with divers on a part-time basis.

Men's and women's tennis--Binghamton head coach Curt Coutts stepped down after 23 years but will continue with the school as a staff member until his retirement after the fall semester. Coutts' squads reeled off 10 straight State University of New York Athletic Conference titles until the school's departure from the conference after the fall of 1996. The school named Jamie Campbell, assistant coach at James Madison for the past two seasons, as Coutts' successor ... Tom Maze resigned as head men's and women's head coach at Methodist. Maze had been head men's coach for three years and head women's coach for two.

Men's and women's track and field--Tom Tellez announced plans to retire as head track and field coach at Houston. Tellez, who has been head coach for 22 years, will remain with the school as a volunteer coach, advisor and consultant on the development of a new track and field complex ... Western State appointed Angie Mauldin interim head women's track and field coach. Mauldin succeeds Duane Vanderbusche, who will continue as head men's and women's cross country coach and professor of history.

Men's and women's volleyball--Stephanie C. Dragan named head volleyball coach at Centre, succeeding Kim Hils. Dragan, who has been head volleyball and softball coach at Agnes Scott for two seasons, also will serve as the school's first head softball coach ... Iowa chose Rita Crockett as head coach. Crockett has been coaching professionally in Italy and Switzerland for 10 years ... Brenda Hillman, head coach at Methodist for the past three years, resigned ... Amy DeMasi selected as head women's volleyball coach at Adelphi after serving as head men's and women's volleyball coach at Suffolk Community College. DeMasi also worked as assistant women's basketball coach at Stony Brook during the 1997-98 season and will assume assistant women's basketball coaching responsibilities at Aldephi as well ... Olivet head women's coach Jennifer Lee Semler appointed head coach at Wartburg. Semler succeeds Robin Hoppenworth, who will continue with the school as softball coach and professor in the physical education department.

Volleyball assistant--Dana Castillo Launey added as assistant volleyball coach at North Carolina-Charlotte. Launey, who served one year as assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana, succeeds Meg Fitzgerald, who was selected as head coach at Rollins.

Wrestling--Oregon assistant wrestling coach Chuck Kearney promoted to head coach. Kearney, an assistant for 10 years, succeeds Ron Finley, who retired after the 1997-98 season.

STAFF

Media relations and marketing director--The Belmont athletics department announced plans to combine its sports information and marketing departments into a media relations and marketing department. Eric Jones was named director of the new office.

Media relations and marketing assistant director--The Belmont athletics department announced plans to combine its sports information and marketing departments into a media relations and marketing department. Leslie Brown was named assistant director of the new office.

Sports information directors--Belmont appointed John Langdon sports information director. Langdon, who succeeds Mickey Smith, has served in a similar capacity at Rhodes since 1996 ... Mike Wolf, sports information director at Washington (Missouri) for 14 years, named to the same position at Miami (Ohio). Wolf, who also served as Washington's assistant athletics director of media relations during the past year, replaces John Estes, who resigned to become an account supervisor at Tunheim Santrizos Company in Minneapolis ... Idaho State hired Frank Mercogliano as sports information director.

Sports marketing assistant director--Wendy McReynolds chosen as assistant director for sports marketing at Maryland. McReynolds has been assistant director of marketing and promotions at Wichita State since 1996.

CONFERENCES

Utica/Rome athletics director Jim Klein was elected president of the State University of New York Athletic Conference for 1998-99. The conference also elected Susan Hoffman, Brockport, president-elect; Jim Zalacca, New Paltz, chair of the men's division; and Gabby Lisella, Oswego State, chair of women's division.

The Big South Conference elected Jairy C. Hunter Jr. president. Hunter, who is president at Charleston Southern, succeeds Winthrop President Anthony J. Digiorgio and will serve a three-year term. The Big South also elected Ronald Ingle, president at Coastal Carolina, vice president and Douglas Covington, president at Radford, secretary.

AGREEMENT

Eastman Kodak Company will extend its agreement with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to sponsor the Kodak Women's All-America basketball team for NCAA I, II, III; NAIA; and junior/community college divisions. The Division I Kodak team is the oldest of the women's honor teams. The first Division I squad was designated in 1975.

ETC.

CORRECTION

Boston College men's water polo team was omitted from the all-academic team list printed in the April 27 issue of The NCAA News. The Eagles posted a 3.100 team grade-point average. The following individuals from Boston College also were omitted: Brian Angeli, Peter Hennessy, Nader Massarweh, Matthew Petrich, Ilian Rashtanov and Stephen Szejner.

NOTABLES