Kaye Cowher, former basketball student-athlete at North Carolina State and wife of former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, died July 23 of skin cancer at the age of 54. As a student-athlete, she played alongside her twin sister Faye Young and captured the 1978 Atlantic Coast Conference title.

Other transactions

Coaches

Baseball assistants – Dallas Baptist hired Bob Keller as pitching coach after six seasons in the same position at Michigan.

Men's basketball – Marc Brown, interim head coach at New Jersey City, was appointed head coach.

Women's basketball assistants – Ferris State named Kurt Westendorp assistant coach after three seasons as an assistant coach at Albion.

Softball – Yvette Healy has resigned as head coach at Loyola (Illinois) to accept the same position at Wisconsin. Healy led the Ramblers for six seasons and is the second-winningest coach in program history.

Men's and women's soccer – Peace hired Keith Jenkins as head coach of the women's soccer program. Jenkins was previously a coach at the high school level for 16 years … New Jersey City named Nansha Kalonji head coach of the men's soccer program after serving in an interim capacity since August 2009.

Men's and women's swimming and diving – Carthage announced men's swimming coach Greg Earhart will take a leave of absence from September 1, 2010, to April 1, 2011. During Earhart's absence, Andrew Belton, a former Wisconsin-Milwaukee volunteer coach and student-athlete, will serve as interim men's swimming head coach.

Staff

Athletic training – Georgia Southern hired Justin Matlage as an assistant athletic trainer after a year as an intern with the NFL.

Communication – Allegheny named James Kramer director of athletics communications and sports marketing. Kramer was the director of communications and sports information at MIT for seven years before working outside of intercollegiate athletics for a short time.

Deaths

Dennis Byrd, the first two-time All-American in North Carolina State football history, died July 23 at the age of 63. Byrd suffered a heart attack on July 15 and never regained consciousness. Byrd is the only defensive player in program history to have his jersey retired and was recently inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame.

Miscellaneous

University of Evansville soccer student-athlete Abby Guerra was involved in a serious car accident in Arizona last week and was misidentified as having died in the crash. Family members of the student-athlete and of the woman who was thought to be Guerra were told on Saturday, though, that Guerra was in the hospital in critical condition and not deceased.

Information for submissions

Send transactions – including hiring announcements, contract extensions, retirements, milestones and deaths – to transactions@ncaa.org.