The NCAA News - Record

November 25, 1996

• Calendar
• Georgia Southern hires Johnson for football
• General
• Etc.
• Notables
• Deaths

Calendar

Georgia Southern hires Johnson for football

For the past two years, Johnson has been offensive coordinator at Navy.

This is Johnson's second stint at Georgia Southern, after serving four years as an assistant coach there from 1983 to 1986. He served as defensive line coach the first two seasons and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1985.

Johnson left Georgia Southern for Hawaii, where he spent eight seasons as offensive coordinator. He helped guide the Rainbows to their first Western Athletic Conference title and a bowl appearance.

Johnson earned a bachelor's degree at Western Carolina and a master's degree at Appalachian State. His first collegiate coaching job was as offensive coordinator at Lees McRae Junior College.

GENERAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Lee Bollinger, provost of Dartmouth, appointed president at Michigan ... Ronald Zaccari, provost and vice-president for academic affairs at Southeastern Louisiana, named president at West Liberty State.

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

Keith Ochs, athletics director at Lenoir-Rhyne for the past 13 years, announced his retirement, effective at the end of the academic year. Associate AD Jane Jenkins will serve as interim AD beginning this summer. Ochs has been at Lenoir-Rhyne since 1970 and served in various capacities, including head of the physical education department, assistant football coach and coordinator of health, physical education and athletics. Ochs will remain on the college staff to teach in the physical education department.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Gary Barta named senior associate athletics director for external affairs at Washington. Barta has been director of athletics development and external affairs at Northern Iowa since 1990 ... Marie Robbins named associate AD for compliance at Alabama, succeeding Kermit Kendrick.

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS OF ATHLETICS

Diane DiBonaventuro appointed assistant athletics director at Immaculata. DiBonaventuro was a physical education instructor at Bryn Mawr and also has been a sports information director and basketball, field hockey and lacrosse coach ... Florida International hired Tony O'Neal as assistant AD for compliance and academic services. O'Neal has been associate AD for compliance and academic services at Delaware State for the past two years.

SENIOR WOMAN ADMINISTRATOR

Debra Warren, associate athletics director for sports programs at Alabama, named senior woman administrator there, succeeding Sarah Patterson.

COACHES

Baseball assistant--Bill Timmes hired as assistant coach at New York Tech. Timmes most recently served as manager of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League's Nassau Collegians.

Men's basketball assistants--Jeff Gregory named assistant coach at Misericordia ... South Alabama hired Chris Jones as assistant coach. Jones was an assistant coach at Moberly Area Community College. He replaces Monte Mathis, who accepted a similar position at Toledo ... Todd Landrey, assistant coach at Indiana (Pennsylvania) for the past three seasons, appointed at Newberry. Landrey also spent three seasons at Frostburg State as an assistant coach ... Hamilton named Matt Stowell as assistant coach. Stowell, a 1995 Hamilton graduate, was cocaptain of the school's basketball team in 1994-95.

Women's basketball--Nikita Lowry, an Ohio State assistant for the past three years and, earlier, a Buckeye all-American, named head coach at Detroit ... St. Anselm announced the resignation of head coach Donna Guimont, effective immediately. Guimont has been head of the women's basketball program since its inception in 1976. Assistant coach Bill Vermette was appointed interim coach. He has been an assistant at St. Anselm for the past 11 years.

Women's basketball assistants--Tanya Gillette named assistant coach at Misericordia ... Carrie Osborne, a former player and student assistant coach at Duquesne, named assistant coach at Slippery Rock.

Field hockey--Phil and Shannon Danaher, husband-and-wife cohead coaches at Virginia Commonwealth, announced their resignations, effective immediately. The Danahers said the birth of the couple's first child last winter caused them to rethink their team approach to coaching.

Football--Minnesota's Jim Wacker resigned. Wacker compiled a record of 12-32 during four years at Minnesota. He also has coached at Southwest Texas State and Texas Christian ... Jim Hess, head coach at New Mexico State, announced his resignation, effective at the end of the season. Hess took over the New Mexico State program in 1990 and compiled a 22-54 record ... Citadel named interim coach Don Powers as permanent head coach. Powers replaces Charlie Taaffe, who was suspended from coaching duties earlier this year and now has been dismissed ... Mike Clary, who has served dual roles as Rhodes athletics director and head football coach, relinquished his coaching duties to concentrate on his AD responsibilities ... Lou Tepper dismissed at Illinois, effective at the end of the season.

Men's and women's golf--Don Rasmussen hired at Idaho.

Men's ice hockey assistant--Scott Kirsch, a 1995 graduate and former hockey goaltender at Brockport State, named assistant coach at his alma mater. Kirsch has coached and taught at the high-school level.

Men's and women's soccer--Ted Eskildsen named head coach at Mount Holyoke, succeeding Ferdie Adoboe, who resigned to pursue other interests. Eskildsen has coached at Hawthorne, Grinnell and Bethany (West Virginia) and compiled a 113-41-11 career record ... Staten Island head men's coach Jim Donlan retired after his third stint as head coach. He compiled a record of 76-46-13 over nine seasons. Donlan first was head coach from 1977 to 1978, then 1982 to 1985 and 1994 through 1996 ... Montclair State appointed Rob Chesney director of soccer operations and head soccer coach.

Women's softball--Debra Larson, catcher for the Brakettes fastpitch softball team, named head women's softball coach at Bridgeport, where she also will be head women's volleyball coach. During the past four years, Larson has served as assistant varsity and head varsity softball coach at Berlin High School.

Men's and women's swimming assistant--Susan Ryan hired as assistant coach of men's and women's swimming at Misericordia.

Men's and women's tennis--Betty Warren, a teaching professional at the Broadmoor Tennis Club, hired to coach the Colorado College women's team for the second time. Warren previously coached the team from 1988 through 1992 ... Hutton Jones named head coach of the men's and women's teams at Abilene Christian. Jones, a four-year letter winner in tennis for the Wildcats, has been an assistant coach at Abilene Christian since 1984 and has taught at the university's summer camps. Jones is head tennis professional at the Ponca City Country Club ... Canisius head women's tennis coach General Bass announced his resignation after 14 years and a 129-62 record. After collecting just two wins in his inaugural season, Bass led the Griffs to an unprecedented 10 straight campaigns of .500 or better.

Women's volleyball--Debra Larson hired at Bridgeport to revive the volleyball program. Larson also will be head women's softball coach. She has been teaching and coaching at the high-school level.

Wrestling--Longwood appointed Brent Newell head coach. A 1993 Longwood graduate, Newell returns to the school after coaching and teaching at the high-school and middle school level.

STAFF

Academic advisor--Mara Jacobson named athletics academic advisor at Florida International. Jacobson has been academic advisor for the university's College of Education since 1993.

Media relations coordinator--Florida International named J. Darin Darst as athletics media coordinator. Darst earned a bachelor's degree from Florida International this year after working as an editorial assistant and high-school sports correspondent for eight years at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

Relays director--Dave Johnson named director of the Penn Relays after a year as interim director. Johnson, a respected track and field historian and journalist, had served as associate director of the relays for the past seven years.

CONFERENCES

Beth Ammons, an associate with the Fort Worth, Texas, law firm of McDonald Sanders, P.C., named assistant commissioner for compliance with the Southland Conference. Ammons also has been an NCAA compliance consultant with the Overland Park, Kansas, law firm of Bond, Schoeneck and King L.L.P.

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference promoted Steve Murray, director of sports information, to assistant commissioner for media relations.

ETC.

Alabama-Birmingham, a charter member of Conference USA, will become a football-playing member of the league, beginning with the 1999 season. Alabama-Birmingham, which began Division I-A play this fall as a football independent, already competes in other Conference USA sports.

The Yankee Conference has become part of the new Atlantic 10 Football Conference to give both the Yankee Conference and the Atlantic 10 Conference a stronger presence in the restructured Association. As a football-only league, the Yankee Conference would not have direct representation in the new Division I governance structure. The new football conference will begin play next year.

CORRECTION

A team listed in the United States Cross Country Coaches Association's Division I men's poll for the week of November 5 was misidentified in the November 18 issue of The NCAA News. The team is St. John's (New York), which was ranked 17th in the poll.

SEMINAR

The National Alliance of African American Athletes (NAAAA) will present its third annual national conference, Synergy '97, June 20 and 21 in Atlanta. Scheduled participants include Fred Hickman of CNN Sports and Michael W. Jackson, professor in the College of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance at Temple. Information can be obtained from J. Everette Pearsall, national director of sports operations, at 717/234-6352 or from the NAAAA web site at www.NAAAA.com.

NOTABLES

Winners of the AT&T Long Distance Awards for college football games played through the weekend of November 9 (week No. 11) are: longest run from scrimmage, 95 yards, D'Andre Hardeman, Texas A&M vs. Baylor; longest pass play, 87 yards, Steve Sarkisian to Dustin Johnson, Brigham Young vs. Rice; longest punt average (minimum two punts), (tie) 51.4 yards on five punts, Andy Russ, Mississippi State vs. Kentucky, and 51.4 yards on eight punts, Tucker Phillips, Rice vs. Brigham Young; longest punt return, 87 yards, Charles West, Houston vs. Southern Mississippi; longest kickoff return, 95 yards, Kevin Cobb, Memphis vs. Tennessee; and longest field goal, 55 yards, Jaret Greaser, Texas Tech vs. Texas. AT&T provides $400 weekly in each of the six categories to the NCAA Degree-Completion Scholarship Program.

San Jose State senior Janice Moodle and East Tennessee State senior Keith Nolan named Rolex college golfers of the month for October. The Rolex golfer of the month is voted on by members of the College Golf Foundation's Golfer of the Month Committee and awards are based primarily on results from Rolex Collegiate Tour events, including conference championships, NCAA regionals and NCAA championships.

Athletic Management, a magazine serving more than 30,000 college and high-school athletics administrators in North America, has named the 1996 winners of the annual ATALANTA Awards for Women's Athletics. The awards were announced in the magazine's November issue. The 1996 college winners (by category) are, in the category Starting New Sports, Sacred Heart, for adding nine new sports; in Support Programs, Arizona, for the progressive, comprehensive student-athlete program Commitment to an Athlete's Total Success (CATS); in Role Models, Linda Herman, associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at Illinois State, a pioneering coach and creative administrator; and in Successful Teams, Nebraska, for its women's volleyball team, which won the 1995 NCAA Division I championship -- the school's first national volleyball title.

South Carolina offensive lineman Jamar Nesbit named the 10th member of the College Football Association's Good Works Team. Nesbit is an active volunteer in the Columbia, South Carolina, area, visiting elementary schools and hospitals. He helped his teammates raise money to benefit burned churches by washing cars.

Sarah Silvernail, a 6-1 middle blocker for Washington State, named Division I women's volleyball player of the week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Sheri Maus, a 5-10 junior at Ferris State, named in Division II.

Three finalists for the 1996 Butkus Award -- presented annually to the best linebacker in college football -- were announced by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Inc., and Joyner Sports Medicine Institute. Finalists are Canute Curtis, senior rushing linebacker at West Virginia; Pat Fitzgerald, senior middle linebacker at Northwestern; and Matt Russell, senior middle linebacker at Colorado. The winner will be chosen by confidential balloting December 9 and announced December 14.

DEATHS

Darlene May, who brought national and international recognition to Cal Poly Pomona women's basketball, died November 15 after an extended battle with cancer. The most-victorious coach in NCAA Division II women's basketball history, May retired as head coach in July 1994 after being diagnosed with the disease. May became head coach in 1974 and compiled a 519-119 (.813) record over the next 20 years. Under her guidance, the women's basketball team won Division II championships in 1982, 1985 and 1986. In addition to her achievements as a coach, May made history at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles when she became the first female to referee a women's basketball game.

--Compiled by Sally Huggins