Howard hires Petty as head football coach

Howard has chosen Rayford T. Petty as head football coach. Petty takes over for Steve Wilson, who was released as head coach earlier this year.

Petty formerly was recruiting coordinator and defensive coordinator at Howard from 1991 to 1997. Most recently, he has worked as assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Norfolk State. He also has served as an assistant coach at Southern and North Carolina A&T and was a student assistant at Elon. Additionally, Petty has been head coach and an assistant coach at the high-school level.

Petty was a four-year football letter-winner at Elon.

GENERAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Ronald M. Zaccari was selected as president at Valdosta State. Zaccari formerly was president at West Liberty State ... Kendall A. Blanchard resigned as president at Fort Lewis, effective June 30. Blanchard will continue with the school as a professor of anthropology ... Northern Colorado President Hank Brown announced plans to step down to become president and chief executive officer at the Daniels Fund, a philanthropic foundation based in Denver. Brown has served as president at the school since July 1998.

DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Temple's Dave O'Brien announced plans to resign as athletics director, effective February 15. O'Brien has guided the program since 1996 ... Middle Tennessee State named James Donnelly as athletics director. Donnelly has been interim athletics director for the past 15 months and formerly was head football coach at the school from 1979 to 1998. He also spent the past two years as director of community relations in the school's athletics department.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS
OF ATHLETICS

Rob Chesney was chosen as associate athletics director at Montclair State ... UNLV named Diane Dickerson as associate athletics director for development ... Don Oberhelman was named as associate athletics director for athletics and academic compliance at Southern Mississippi. Oberhelman formerly was an educational coordinator for the athletics compliance department at Texas A&M.

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
OF ATHLETICS

Dave Moll resigned as assistant athletics director at Northern Colorado, effective January 30, to assume a position with the FANSonly Network. Moll joined the athletics department in 1997 as director of media relations and sports information. He most recently has worked in external operations ... Northern Colorado shifted the responsibilities of Julie Warrington, assistant athletics director and director of compliance, to the development and fund-raising area. Warrington has been an athletics administrator at the school since April 1999.

COACHES

Baseball -- Gardner-Webb's Clyde Miller announced plans to retire as head coach after the 2002 season ... Terry Hensley resigned as head coach at Northern Colorado, effective after the 2002 season. Since 1991, Hensley has guided the program to a 270-257 mark.

Women's basketball -- St. John's (New York) released head coach Darcel Estep and elevated assistant Pechone Stepps to interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Estep has been head coach since June 1999 and Stepps was a second-year assistant ... Western Kentucky head coach Shawn Campbell signed a four-year contract extension through the 2005-06 season. Campbell has been head coach since July ... Kathleen Weber resigned as head coach at North Carolina-Asheville, effective at the end of the season. Weber is in her fifth season as head coach ... Texas Christian head coach Jeff Mittie agreed to a multiyear contract extension. Mittie has led the program to a 55-25 record in two and a half seasons ... East Carolina's Dee Stokes resigned after three and a half seasons as head coach. The school chose assistant Gene Hill as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Women's basketball assistants -- Joyce Jenkins was released as an assistant at St. John's (New York). Jenkins was in her third year with the program. The school named Bernard Rencher, currently coordinator of student-athlete academic support at the school, and Kathy Meehan, associate vice-president for athletics, as assistants.

Men's and women's cross country assistant -- Nate Hoey was selected as interim assistant men's and women's coach at West Chester.

Field hockey assistants -- Megan Block was hired as an assistant coach at St. Mary's (Maryland). During the 2001 season, Block was a field hockey intern at Hamilton and formerly was an assistant at Salisbury State for two years ... West Chester chose Jayne Landis as an assistant coach.

Football -- Illinois awarded head coach Ron Turner with a one-year contract extension through 2007. Turner, who was selected as Big Ten Conference coach of the year this past season after guiding the team to the Nokia Sugar Bowl, has been head coach since 1997 ... Bob Toledo, head coach at UCLA, accepted a one-year contract extension through the 2008 season. Toledo has led the program for six seasons ... Auburn awarded Tommy Tuberville a one-year contract extension as head coach ... Texas Lutheran hired Tom Mueller as head coach to replace Bryan Marmion. As a former assistant with the program for five seasons, Mueller, who also has been an assistant at North Dakota State, Southwest Texas State and Texas Christian, helped the team capture two NAIA Division II national championships in 1974 and 1975 ... Kirby Garry was added as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at South Dakota ... Larry Coker, head coach at Miami (Florida), was awarded a two-year contract extension. Coker led the team to a 12-0 season record and the 2001 BCS national championship ... Philip Fulmer was awarded a contract extension as head coach at Tennessee through the 2008 season. Since being appointed head coach in 1992, Fulmer has captured two Southeastern Conference titles and a national championship in 1998 ... Alabama A&M chose Anthony Jones as head coach to succeed Ron Cooper and interim head coach Stan Conner. Jones has been head coach at Morehouse for the past three seasons ... North Carolina extended the contract of head coach John Bunting through January 2008 ... Bob Nielson signed a four-year contract extension as head coach at Minnesota-Duluth. In the past three seasons, Nielson has guided the program to a 19-15 mark ... Rayford T. Petty was hired as head coach at Howard to replace Steve Wilson, who was released. Petty, who formerly was an assistant with the program from 1992 through 1998, has been defensive coordinator at Norfolk State for the past two years.

Men's and women's golf -- Kevin Kenney resigned as head coach at Wentworth Institute. Kenney led the program to a 29-11-1 record in seven seasons.

Men's and women's rowing assistant -- North Carolina named Laura Fogt as an assistant women's coach.

Men's soccer -- Brian Sentowski assumed responsibilities as interim head coach at Montclair State ... Army named Kurt Swanbeck as head coach ... Campbell's Derrick Leeson resigned as head coach ... Dermont McGrane was hired as head coach at Niagara. McGrane has spent the past five years as top assistant at Coastal Carolina ... John Melody resigned as head men's and women's coach at Mercyhurst, effective January 31. In five seasons, Melody led the men's squads to five Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles and guided the women's program to two conference co-championships ... Paul Marco was selected as head coach at Binghamton. Marco, who succeeds Hristos Dimitriou, has been head coch at West Virginia for six seasons.

Women's soccer -- Austin Peay named Kelley Poole as head coach ... Nicole Nelson was elevated to head coach at Stephen F. Austin, succeeding Lance Noble. Nelson served as an assistant with the program last season ... Winthrop selected Melissa Heinz as head coach ... Jessica Reynolds resigned as head coach at West Chester to accept a coaching position at St. Joseph's (Pennsylvania). West Chester named Deb Flaherty as interim head coach ... Utah hired Rich Manning as head coach. Manning has been an assistant at Santa Clara for the past four years.

Softball -- Paul Caufield assumed additional duties as head softball coach at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, succeeding Karl Nienhuis. Caufield is in his second season as head men's hockey coach.

Softball assistants -- Wisconsin-Stevens Point added Kelly Rutta as an assistant coach ... Ann Goropoulos was awarded responsibilities as an assistant coach at Franklin and Marshall.

Men's and women's swimming and diving -- Stevens Tech added Nancy Bercaw as men's and women's swimming coach and aquatics director. For the first time since 1923, the men's program is scheduled to compete on the varsity level beginning in the fall of 2002. Bercaw most recently has been an assistant men's and women's coach at New York University.

Men's and women's tennis -- Dale Duronslet was hired as head women's coach at Nicholls State, succeeding Robbie Flink ... Colleen Honohan resigned as head men's and women's coach at Merrimack ... Wartburg appointed Jim Willis as head men's coach. Willis succeeds Steve McKinstry.

Men's and women's tennis assistants -- Stony Brook appointed Marie-Claude Ostiguy as graduate assistant men's and women's coach ... Katy Propstra was awarded responsibilities as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona. Propstra spent the 2001 season as head coach at San Diego City College.

Men's and women's track and field -- Patrick Pretty was named as head men's and women's track and cross country coach at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Pretty replaces John and Kim Lumkes, a husband and wife team.

Men's and women's track and field assistant -- VMI named Ermelinda Spies as an assistant coach.

STAFF

Assistant athletic trainer -- Phillip Glatzer was chosen as assistant athletic trainer at Southern Indiana.

Development -- Chris Lynch was awarded duties as director of athletics development at West Chester.

Sports information assistants -- Utah State promoted Doug Hoffman to associate athletics media relations director. Hoffman has been assistant athletics media relations director ... Northern Colorado promoted Kim Hendrix to assistant director of athletics media relations. Hendrix has served as a media relations intern since August.

Strength and conditioning assistant -- Christopher Holder assumed responsibilities as assistant strength and conditioning coach at Appalachian State.

CONFERENCES

The National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators named Gary Karner as president and Cathie Schweitzer as vice-president. Karner, commissioner at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and Schweitzer, athletics director at Springfield College, will serve two-year terms. The association also announced that Nancy Meyer of Calvin and Dick Kaiser of Defiance will continue as secretary and treasurer, respectively. Leon Lunder will retain a position on the association's executive board as the immediate past-president ... The Presidents' Athletic Conference hired Joe Onderko as information director ... Michael L. Ingberg resigned as assistant commissioner for media and public affairs at the Gulf South Conference to become director of communications at the Horizon League. Ingberg has been with the conference for seven years ... The Northeast Collegiate Volleyball Association named Ira Thor as sports information director. Thor will continue as director of sports information at New Jersey City.

ASSOCIATIONS

Athena Yiamouyiannis was hired as executive director for the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. Yiamouyiannis most recently has served as a director of membership services at the NCAA national office.

Etc.

NAME CHANGES

CORRECTIONS

The university from which LPGA golfer Betsy King graduated was misidentified in a pull-out quote in the January 21 issue of The NCAA News. King graduated from Furman University.

Notables

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America selected Lauren Gregg as the recipient of its Women's Committee Award of Excellence. Gregg, former head women's coach at Virginia from 1986-95, currently serves as vice-president of player personnel and technical director for the Women's United Soccer Association and formerly was an assistant coach with the women's U.S. National Team. The award, established in 1999 and sponsored by the Washington Area Girls Soccer League, recognizes individuals who have brought honor and distinction to women's soccer.

DEATHS

Herbert Warden, team physician at West Virginia, died January 14 at the age of 81. Warden, who had been team physician since 1968, was a cardiothoracic surgeon and a member of the team that performed the world's first successful open heart surgery in 1954.

Former Oregon pole vaulter George Varnoff died recently. He was 87. Varnoff was a former world record holder in the event.

Former Arkansas football player Jon Richardson died of a heart attack recently. He was 50. Richardson was the school's first black scholarship football player and competed at halfback from 1970 through 1972.

Former Lehigh football coach John Whitehead died of heart complications January 19 at the age of 77. Whitehead earned a Division II national championship and compiled a 75-38-2 record during his 10-year tenure at the school.

John Wilkinson Taylor, former president at Louisville and former deputy director general at Unesco, died December 11. He was 95.

Catawba football player Darris Morris was shot to death January 25. Morris, 21, was a two-time all-South Atlantic Conference linebacker.

--Compiled by Leilana McKindra