Willie Fritz was selected as head football coach at Sam Houston State after 13 seasons at Central Missouri, where he led the Mules to a 97-47 record. Fritz also led Blinn Junior College in Texas to two National Junior College Athletic Association championships before taking the reins of the Mules and leading them to their first Division II Football Championship appearance in 2002. The former Pittsburg State football student-athlete was a graduate assistant coach at Sam Houston State in the mid-1980s and secondary and special-teams coach for the Bearkats in the early 1990s.

Other transactions

Football – Vic Koenning hired as defensive coordinator at Illinois after holding the same post this year at Kansas State. The former Wyoming head coach also has coordinated defenses at Troy and Clemson.

Lacrosse – Richard Schunke named head men’s coach for the new program at Hilbert, which will begin play in 2010. He played at Canisius and Gannon and has coached at the high school level.

Soccer – Arkansas State head women’s coach Derek Pittman hired as associate head women’s coach and goalkeeper coach at Gonzaga. Pittman, who also has been an assistant at Georgia and Missouri, led Arkansas State to a Sun Belt Conference postseason semifinal appearance this year … Ashley Hammond named head men’s coach at Manhattan, which also hired Jordan Scott as assistant men’s coach. Hammond previously was with the Montclair (New Jersey) United Soccer Club, where he served for 19 years as director of coaching.

Tennis – Mark Murphy selected as women’s tennis coach and director of tennis facilities at Kalamazoo. He has been head women’s and associate men’s coach for the past 11 years at Coe, where he played.