Georgia names Evans as athletics director

Georgia has appointed Damon Evans as director of athletics, effective July 1.

Evans, the first black athletics director in the Southeastern Conference and a former NCAA Division I Management Council member, has been senior associate athletics director for internal affairs at Georgia since 2000. He was an associate athletics director at the school from 1998 to 2000.

In addition, Evans served as assistant commissioner for compliance at the Southeastern Conference from 1997 to 1998 and was director of compliance for the league from 1995 to 1997. He also completed one-year stints as director of compliance and operations at Missouri and as a compliance and academic affairs assistant at the Southeastern Conference.

Evans earned a bachelor's degree in finance in 1992 and a master's degree in sports management in 1994 from Georgia, where he also was a letter-winner on the football squad.

Morehead State President Eaglin retires

Ronald G. Eaglin, president at Morehead State, has announced plans to retire, effective once a successor has been named.

Eaglin, whose term on the Division I Board of Directors expired at the end of the Convention, has served as president at Morehead State since July 1, 1992. Before accepting the appointment there, he was chancellor at Coastal Carolina. He also fulfilled responsibilities as vice-chancellor of academic affairs at South Carolina-Spartanburg and he formerly was southeast regional director for the American College Testing program.

Eaglin earned a bachelor's degree in biology and mathematics at Southeast Missouri State and holds a master's degree in student personnel administration from Southern Illinois. Eaglin earned a doctorate in educational psychology at Utah.

GENERAL

Chief executive officers

Fort Lewis named Brad Bartel as president, effective in May, to succeed the retiring Robert Dolphin Jr. Bartel has been provost and executive vice-president for academic affairs at Florida Gulf Coast ... Charles M. Vest announced he will step down as president at MIT, effective next fall ... Katherine Haley Will was selected as president at Gettysburg. Will has most recently served as president at Whittier ... Becker named Kenneth E. Zirkle as president to succeed the late Franklin Loew. Zirkle formerly was president at Findlay.

Directors of athletics

Franklin & Marshall Director of Athletics and Recreation Robert Bunnell resigned to become a consultant with Alden and Associates. Bunnell has been with the school since April 1999. The school announced Peter Van Buskirk, executive officer in the office of the provost, as acting director of athletics until July 1 ... T. Michael Kinder was appointed as director of athletics at Transylvania. Kinder, who has been athletics director at Ferrum since 1993, succeeds the late Ron Whitson ... Tennessee Tech selected Frank Harrell as interim director of athletics. Harrell is an associate athletics director at the school and takes over for Mike Hennigan, who stepped down as athletics director but will remain head football coach ... Rhode Island Director of Athletics and Recreation Ron Petro will not seek an extension of his contract, which expires June 30. Petro has been athletics director since July 1992 ... John A. Reeves, athletics director at Columbia, announced plans to retire, effective June 30. Reeves has held the position for 12 years ... Barbara Hedges, director of athletics at Washington, retired January 16 ... Minnesota Moorhead hired Alfonso Scandrett Jr. as athletics director. Scandrett, who replaces Katy Wilson, formerly was director of athletics at North Carolina A&T and Buffalo State.

Associate director of athletics

John Diffley was appointed senior associate athletics director for administration at St. John's (New York).

Coaches

Baseball -- Brian Lambert was hired as head coach at Nichols to replace Steve Nadeau. Since 1998, Lambert has worked as an assistant at Brandeis.

Baseball assistants -- Rick Gold, Bill Colopy, Lance Dill and Ryan Born were added as assistant coaches at Wittenberg to replace Mark Henninger and Mike DeMassimo.

Men's basketball assistant -- Daniel Guilford was chosen as an assistant coach at Barnard Baruch to succeed John Alesi. Guilford, a 2003 graduate of the school, was a member of the men's basketball squad.

Women's basketball -- Rhode Island announced Tom Garrick as acting head coach at Rhode Island. Garrick, an assistant with the program since 2001, takes over for Boe Pearman, who took a leave of absence for health reasons ... Nicholls State's Louise Bonin resigned as head coach. The school promoted associate head coach Sue Syljebeck to interim head coach.

Women's basketball assistant -- South Carolina appointed Al Brown as an assistant coach.

Men's and women's cross country -- Matt McGuirk was promoted to head men's and women's cross country and track coach at Willamette. McGuirk, an assistant men's coach for more than four years, succeeds Kelly Sullivan, who became head women's cross country and track coach at Oregon State ... Muskingum chose William Cooper as head cross country and track coach. Cooper formerly was an assistant track and field and assistant soccer coach at Colby.

Field hockey -- Cornell appointed Donna Hornibrook as head coach, effective January 21. Hornibrook has been head coach at Houghton College since 1995 ... Dottie Potter Zenaty announced plans to retire at the end of the 2003-04 academic year at Springfield. Zenaty has guided the program for 34 seasons and also has served as an associate professor of physical education.

Football -- Manchester hired W. Shannon Griffith as head coach to replace Dave Harms. Griffith most recently has been an assistant coach and physical education teacher at Bishop Kenny (Florida) High School. He formerly was an assistant at Ball State and Northwood ... Willard Bailey, head coach at Virginia Union, was reassigned to other responsibilities in the athletics department after 22 seasons with the program ... Delaware State selected Alton Lavan as head coach. For the past two years, Lavan has been an assistant coach at Eastern Washington and formerly was an assistant coach in the NFL ... Chuck Martin was promoted to head coach at Grand Valley State to succeed Brian Kelly, who was named as head coach at Central Michigan. Most recently, Martin has worked as defensive coordinator at the school. Kelly, who led Grand Valley State to NCAA Division II national championships in 2002 and 2003, replaces Mike DeBord at Central Michigan, who resigned after four seasons ... UTEP hired Mike Price as head coach. Price led the program at Washington State from 1989 to 2002 ... Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer was awarded a contract extension through 2010. Fulmer guided the school to a first-place tie in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference and an appearance in the Peach Bowl ... Ed Meierkort was selected as head coach at South Dakota. Since 1993, Meierkort has been head coach at Wisconsin-Stout ... Bill Lynch was named as head coach at DePauw to succeed the retired Nick Mourouzis. Lynch served as head coach at Ball State from 1995 to 2002 and has been associate athletics director for community relations there for the past year ... Minnesota Duluth chose Kyle Schweigert as head coach. Schweigert, an assistant coach at North Dakota for 15 seasons, replaces Bob Nielson, who will become director of athletics at Minnesota Duluth ... Ron Zook, head coach at Florida since 2001, signed a two-year contract extension ... Nebraska hired Bill Callahan as head coach to replace Frank Solich, who was released. Callahan most recently was head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders before being released December 31.

Football assistants -- Brian Callahan, Ben McAdoo, Joe Moorhead and Kevin Verdugo were chosen as assistant coaches at Akron ... Eastern Michigan named Jay Peterson and Howard Feggins as assistant coaches ... Kent State added Jon Wauford as defensive line coach at Tulsa. Wauford formerly was an assistant at Miami (Ohio) and has spent the past year coaching at the high-school level ... UCLA released Mark Weber as offensive line coach and Gary Bernardi as tight ends and offensive line coach. Weber has filled the post for seven years and Bernardi was a member of the staff for 10 years ... Mike Freidel was appointed as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at South Dakota. Freidel has been defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Augustana (South Dakota) since 1995 ... Jeff Conway was added as offensive coordinator at Central Missouri State. Conway has been an assistant coach at New Mexico for six seasons ... Idaho selected Alundis Brice as cornerbacks coach, Chad Brown as wide receivers coach, James Cregg as defensive line coach, and Jason Eck as offensive line coach. Brice was a graduate assistant at Mississippi and Brown served as a graduate assistant coach at Purdue for two seasons. For the past four seasons, Cregg has been defensive line coach at Colgate and Eck was a graduate assistant at Colorado for two seasons ... Scott Benzel was appointed as defensive backs coach at Wittenberg. Benzel, who has been a graduate assistant at Robert Morris for two seasons, replaces Mark Henninger and also will serve as an assistant men's and women's track and field coach ... Central Florida named Brian Polian as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator, Tim Salem as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Lance Thompson as defensive coordinator. Polian has been in charge of the running backs and recruiting coordinator at Buffalo (New York) for the past three seasons and Salem spent last season as offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan. Thompson worked one season as tight ends coach and served as defensive line coach last season at LSU ... UCLA hired Tom Cable as offensive line coach. Most recently, Cable was released after four years as head coach at Idaho ... Mike Mannausau was chosen as an assistant coach at North Dakota. Mannausau has been head coach at Grand Forks Red River (North Dakota) High School ... Texas' defensive coordinator Carl Reese resigned after six years ... Chris Symington and Matt MacPherson accepted responsibilties as assistant coaches at Eastern Michgan ... Steve Shankweiler was named as offensive line coach at South Carolina ... Eric Washington resigned as defensive line coach at Ohio ... Ohio State promoted Mark Snyder and Mel Tucker to co-defensive coordinators and named Luke Fickell as linebackers coach. Snyder, who has been linebackers coach, and Tucker, who has worked as safeties coach, replace Mark Dantonio. Fickell has been special teams coordinator for the program since 2002. The school also announced eight-year assistant Jim Heacock will take over as defensive line coach ... Kenny Carter accepted duties as running backs coach at Vanderbilt ... South Dakota added Jim Glogowski as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator, Jarod Dodson as defensive backs coach and Casey Glenn as offensive line coach. The school also named Joe Beschorner as running backs coach. Glogowoski was defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Allegheny and Glenn has been a graduate assistant at Idado. Dodson most recently served as special teams coordinator at Michigan Tech. Beschorner served as running backs coach with the program last season ... Mississippi State chose Brick Haley as an assistant coach and hired Shane Beamer as a graduate assistant.

Men's and women's golf -- Wittenberg's Garnett Purnell accepted additional responsibilities as head men's golf coach. Purnell, who will continue as director of athletics at the school, takes over for Scott Isphording.

Men's and women's golf assistant -- Jim Kincaid accepted duties as an assistant men's coach at Wittenberg.

Men's and women's lacrosse assistant -- Andrew Baxter was chosen as an assistant men's coach at Mercyhurst.

Men's soccer -- Tampa hired Tom Fitzgerald as head coach to succeed Dawson Driscoll and interim head coach Maurice Loregnard. Fitzgerald, who has been head coach at UCLA for the past two seasons, formerly was head coach at Tampa from 1987-95 and guided the program to an NCAA Division II national championship in 1994.

Women's soccer -- Mikki Denney Wright was appointed as head coach at Minnesota ... New Jersey Institute hired Alyssa Radu as head coach. For the past two years, Radu has worked as an assistant at Centenary (New Jersey).

Softball -- Teresa Wilson was released as head coach at Washington and was reassigned within the athletics department. Wilson has guided the program to a 532-198-1 record in 11 seasons. The school announced Scott Centala and Steve Dailey as interim head coaches for the 2004 season.

Softball assistant -- Charlie Biddlecome was selected as an assistant at Peace.

Men's and women's swimming and diving -- Guilford appointed Steve Kaczmarek as head women's coach. The program is scheduled to begin competition in 2004. Since 2000, Kaczmarek has been natatorium supervisor and aquatic director for the Corpus Christi (Texas) Independent School District.

Men's and women's tennis -- Todd Hartsough resigned as head men's and women's coach at Manchester. Hartsough led the women's squad to two straight conference championships ... Tom Cooley was hired as head women's coach at Becker to replace Mary Nowasacki ... Indiana State's Mary Ann Stadler resigned as head women's coach.

Men's and women's track and field assistant -- Elon appointed Donnie Davis as an assistant women's coach.

Men's and women's volleyball -- Jim Barnes was hired as head women's coach at Baylor. Barnes, who replaces Brian Hosfeld, has spent the past two years as head coach at Wyoming ... Philadelphia U. appointed Mark Magarity as head women's coach to succeed Len Lomas. Magarity has spent the past eight years coaching at Mount St. Joseph Academy in Pennsylvania ... Ginny Kelly was hired as head women's coach at Lynn. Kelly, who replaces Nicole Evans, has been head girls' coach at Olympic Heights (Florida) High School since 1991.

Staff

Administrative -- UC Irvine named Dave Leinen as director of finance and administration for intercollegiate athletics, replacing the late Ed Carroll. Leinen, who has been with the school for 20 years, most recently has been assistant dean for planning and resources in the school of social sciences ... Carrie Osborne was awarded responsibilities as assistant to the athletics director at Slippery Rock. Osborne has been an assistant women's basketball coach at the school since 1996.

Strength and conditioning -- Alabama chose Kent Johnston as strength and conditioning coach ... Ed Ellis assumed responsibilities as director of strength and conditioning at Central Florida ... Elon's Rod Deaton resigned as strength and conditioning coach.

Strength and conditioning assistant -- Central Florida added Scott Sinclair as assistant director of strength and conditioning.

Ticket operations -- Robert Bogardus was hired as director of ticket operations at Bradley.

Conferences

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference elevated Tara Larkin to director of women's basketball operations. Larkin has been with the league since August 2002 as the administrative assistant to the commissioner ... Mary Faragher was appointed as coordinator of volleyball officials for the Ohio Valley Conference to replace Jim Williams, who will continue as coordinator of softball officials for the conference. Faragher has spent the past four years as camp director for the Officials Training Program conducted by the Professional Association of Volleyball Officials ... The Missouri Valley Conference named Ashley Hotze as director of operations and Carla Fight as assistant to the commissioner. Hotze has been with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for two and a half years, most recently serving as director of women's basketball. Fight most recently was manpower coordinator for American Airlines premium service department ... Jennifer Henderson was hired as associate commissioner and general counsel at the Sun Belt Conference. Henderson, formerly a membership services representative at the NCAA, has been compliance coordinator at Washington since September 2002.

Associations

Torie Johnson, compliance assistant at the Southeastern Conference, was chosen as director of the National Letter of Intent program. Johnson succeeds Greg Sankey, associate commissioner for compliance at the SEC.

Corrections

A story in the December 8 NCAA News about the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association's Fall Forum listed two action items incorrectly. FARA approved that there be no predetermined limit to the length of time that faculty athletics representatives may serve and voted down a proposal that would have required representatives to be active, tenured members of the faculty.

Notables

Catherine Reddick, a senior soccer player at North Carolina, was selected as the Honda Award winner as the top female athlete in her sport. Reddick helped the Tar Heels collect this year's Division I national championship as the most outstanding defensive player of the tournament ... Joanna Lohman and Chris Wingert were honored as the 2003 National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas College Scholar Athletes of the Year. Lohman, the award's first repeat winner and Big Ten player of the year, led Penn State to a 19-3-3 mark and an appearance in the quarterfinals of this year's NCAA tournament. Wingert, a two-time Big East defensive player of the year, helped St. John's (New York) to 10 shutouts in 26 games this season en route to an appearance in the 2003 Division I national-championship game ... The American Football Coaches Association named the following as 2003 national Coaches of the Year: NCAA Division I-A -- Pete Carroll, Southern California; NCAA Division I-AA -- Dick Biddle, Colgate; NCAA Division II -- Brian Kelly, Grand Valley State; NCAA Division III -- John Gagliardi, St. John's (Minnesota) ... Catherine Reddick, senior defender at North Carolina, and Chris Wingert, a senior defender at St. John's (New York), were chosen as the Hermann Trophy winners as the top female and male players in NCAA Division I soccer. Reddick, a member of the U.S. Women's National Team, helped guide the Tar Heel's to the school's 18 national championship and a 27-0 mark this season. Wingert, who led St. John's to an appearance in the 2003 national championship match, is the first player to win both the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas National Player of the Year and Scholar Athlete of the Year awards in the same season.

DEATHS

Former UCLA all-American football player Hardiman Cureton died October 1, 2003. He was 69. Cureton helped the squad earn conference championships in 1953, 1954 and 1955 and was a member of the 1954 national-championship team.

Anne Fiolkowski-Schoen, a former basketball player at Connecticut, died of leukemia at the age of 38. Fiolkowski-Schoen was a member of the Huskies team from 1983 to 1987.

Robert L. Dowell, former basketball coach and director of athletics at Pepperdine, died November 27. Dowell was 91.

George E. Faherty, former athletics director and head men's basketball coach at Adelphi, died recently. Faherty served at the school from 1951 to 1966.

Charles Dumas, a former track and field student-athlete at Southern California, died January 5. He was 66. Dumas helped the Trojans capture the 1958 national championship. He earned a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics, collected a gold medal at the 1959 Pan American Games and won or shared five straight U.S. national high jump championships between 1955 and 1959. The 1990 National Track and Field Hall of Fame inductee was the first man to clear 7 feet in the high jump.

Former New Jersey City basketball and tennis player Joseph G. Reilly died January 4. He was 87. Reilly competed on the basketball team for three seasons and was a standout on the tennis squad for four seasons.

Former George Washington basketball player Yinka Dare died January 9 of a heart attack. He was 32. Dare helped the Colonials to two straight NCAA tournament appearances and went on to play in the NBA for four seasons with the New Jersey Nets.

U.S. Army Captain Kimbery Hampton, a former women's tennis player at Presbyterian, died January 2 in Iraq. Hampton captained the tennis team and was the South Atlantic Conference female athlete of the year in 1998.

Tony Laux, a volunteer assistant volleyball coach at Indiana/Purdue-Fort Wayne, died recently. He was 32. Laux was a 1998 graduate of the school and was a member of the men's cross country team.

--Compiled by Leilana McKindra