Calendar

Watts to head inaugural women's program

Merchant Marine has appointed Kelley Watts as its first head women's basketball coach. The program is the school's 10th varsity women's sport.

Watts has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Hofstra. Before coming to Hofstra, she worked as an assistant at Virginia, St. John's (New York) and Temple. Additionally, Watts has served as a graduate assistant at Stony Brook and fulfilled responsibilities as head girls' basketball coach at Center Moriches (New York) High School from 1992 to 1993.

Watts was a four-year letter-winner in basketball at Rutgers from 1982 to 1986. As a member of the 1986 squad, Watts helped the team compile a 16-0 conference record, the first perfect conference season in Atlantic 10 Conference history.

Watts, who has instructed at more than a dozen basketball clinics, earned a bachelor of science degree in administration of justice at Rutgers. She also will serve as athletics recruiting coordinator at Merchant Marine.

GENERAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

D. Duane Cummins announced plans to retire as president at Bethany (West Virginia), effective May 2002.

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Coastal Carolina selected Wayne White as assistant director of athletics for media relations ... Julie Ostermann was hired as assistant athletics director for marketing and promotions at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Ostermann has been an assistant director of marketing at New Mexico.

COACHES

Aquatics assistant -- Maximilian Miyahara was hired as an assistant aquatics coach at Loyola Marymount. Miyahara, who formerly coached girls' and boys' water polo and swimming at the high-school level, will assist with the men's water polo and women's water polo and swimming programs.

Baseball -- David Palese was chosen as interim head coach at Rochester. Palese has been an assistant coach with the program since 1999 and succeeds Robert Hartz.

Men's basketball -- Joe Mihalich, head coach at Niagara, signed a contract extension through the 2004-05 season.

Men's basketball assistants -- East Stroudsburg named Mike Yeater as an assistant coach ... Albany (New York) named Fred Dupree as an assistant coach. Dupree has been an administrative assistant for the men's basketball program at Stony Brook since August ... Joe Rulewich, Chris Guiton, Pat Buyse and Chris Ciunci were added as assistant coaches at Ursinus.

Women's basketball assistants -- Seton Hall appointed Katie Cronin as an assistant coach ... Greensboro College selected Timothy Munnerlyn and Kim White as assistant coaches.

Men's and women's cross country assistants -- Frank Handelman and Selvin Cruz were added as assistants at Hunter.

Football -- Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville signed a contract extension through 2005 ... Joseph Domingos was hired as head coach at Massachusetts Maritime. Domingos, who replaces the retired Don Ruggeri, has been an assistant coach at the school for 28 years ... Don Powers resigned as head coach at the Citadel ... Bruce Snyder was released as head coach at Arizona State, effective at the end of the season. Snyder has guided the program for nine seasons and has a current record of 57-44 ... Maryland released Ron Vanderlinden as head coach. Vanderlinden has led the program since 1997 ... Larry Smith, head coach at Missouri, was released. In seven seasons, Smith was 33-46-1 ... Otterbein's Wally Hood announced his retirement as head coach. Hood, who closes his tenure at the school after six seasons, formerly was head coach at Fairmont State and Ohio Northern ... Dean Pees agreed to a two-year contract extension through June 30, 2005. Pees has served as head coach at the school since the 1998 season.

Men's and women's ice hockey -- Utica hired Gary Heenan as head men's coach and David Clausen as head women's coach. Both programs are new at the school. Heenan was an assistant at Hamilton, and Clausen served as an assistant at Bowdoin.

Men's soccer -- Liberty promoted Jeff Alder to head coach. Alder has been an assistant for nine years and replaces Bill Bell, who retired ... Austin head coach Truett Cates announced retirement plans after leading the program for 12 seasons. Cates, who also is an associate professor of German, will retain teaching duties ... Gus Constantine resigned as head coach at New York Tech to become general manager of the Westchester Flames of the United Soccer League. In four seasons at the school, Constantine compiled a 22-43-5 record.

Men's soccer assistant -- Salvador Briones was appointed as an assistant at Hunter. During the 1998-99 season, Briones worked as a student assistant with the program.

Women's soccer -- Rose-Hulman's Greg Ruark stepped down as head women's coach, effective June 30. Ruark will continue as athletics director and head men's soccer coach at the school ... Andy Thompson was elevated to head coach at Wingate. Thompson has guided the squad on an interim basis for the second half of the 2000 season.

Softball -- Belmont chose Don Watson as interim head coach.

Softball assistants -- Bucknell named Aimee Barrett as a volunteer assistant coach and appointed Kelly Morris as an assistant coach.

Men's and women's swimming and diving -- Don Feinberg was added as head swim coach and aquatics director at Hood.

Men's and women's tennis assistants -- Florida Atlantic chose Caroline Hora as an associate coach ... Hunter selected Zoya Koroleva as an assistant women's coach, and appointed Siim Vanaselja as a volunteer assistant women's coach.

Men's and women's track and field assistant -- Wichita State selected Thomas Fish as an assistant coach.

Men's and women's volleyball -- Cecilla Patterson resigned as head coach at Birmingham Southern.

Men's and women's volleyball assistants -- Krishna Dass was named as an assistant women's coach at Hunter. The school also appointed Elena Ventura and Chris Chung as volunteer assistants.

STAFF

Administrative -- Melissa Kelly was chosen as manager of sport systems and operations at Hood. Kelly also will work with the basketball team.

Sports information -- Kevin Leitzell was hired as sports information director at Bryn Mawr. Leitzell currently is a sportswriter for The Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Sports information assistant -- College of New Jersey awarded assistant sports information director duties to Nairem Moran.

NOTABLES

Former Kentucky athletics director C. M. Newton was chosen as recipient of the 2000 Edward S. Steitz Award, which is presented to an individual in recognition of outstanding contributions to international basketball. In addition to serving as director of athletics at Kentucky from 1989 until his retirement this year, Newton fulfilled various capacities at USA Basketball, including as president from 1992 to 1996.

DEATHS

Ken Prentice, former athletics business manager at Northern Illinois, died November 11. Prentice, 79, joined Northern Illinois in 1966 to oversee ticket and fiscal operations. He also worked as athletics travel coordinator from 1982 until his retirement in 1987.

--Compiled by Leilana McKindra