Mar 23, 2010 9:46:46 AM

Longtime soccer referee and coach Donald Wilbur will serve as the NCAA's first national assignor of soccer officials in all divisions.

Wilbur will be charged with evaluating officials throughout the season and coordinating their assignment to men's and women's soccer championship games.

In the past, individual sport committees handled the selection of officials.

Division I Women's Soccer Committee chair Paul Bradshaw, associate athletics director at Baylor, said the soccer committees look forward to centralizing soccer officiating nationally.

"It's going to be good for men's and women's soccer," he said. "You'll have one person who sees the entire landscape and can better track officiating assignments across all divisions."

Wilbur, a professor emeritus from the Medical University of South Carolina, is a national assessor and instructor for the two largest soccer officiating governing bodies in the U.S. and is an international assessor as well. He is a frequent presenter at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention and has traveled extensively writing and lecturing on the role officials play in the development of the game.

Charlie Elwood, director of athletics administration at Fordham University and chair of the selection committee said, "Don's tremendous experience and reputation within the soccer community impressed the members of the search committee.  He has the leadership skills, energy and respect of game officials and college coaches that will allow him to be successful as the national assignor."

Wilbur will be asked to hire regional assignors to support him in his duties, including managing and maintaining a budget, recruiting new officials from diverse backgrounds, creating an official's enhancement program, supervising and evaluating officials, and assisting in game assignments.

Wilbur holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Indiana State and a Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina. During the course of his career, he established three online medical schools in under-represented and underserved areas of the world, working closely with foreign governments and leaders. Diversity is important to him: In his application, Wilbur expressed a desire to expand the recruiting pool for soccer officials.

"We need to recruit more under-served and under-represented young men and women in our officiating organizations. We need to make it less difficult for them to join, and we need to nurture them as well as mentor them," he said.

Wilbur begins work in June, and he will be responsible for assigning officials in all three divisions for the 2010 championship.