Tuesday, June 15, 2010

NCAC adds DePauw

DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana, has accepted a unanimous invitation to join the North Coast Athletic Conference. The conference had considered a number of teams, including Washington & Jefferson College.

The NCAC was founded in 1983 based upon the principles of a strong commitment to equality for women, a firm belief in a broad-based athletic program as part of an institutions’ greater academic mission and a reliance on presidential leadership. With the addition of women’s golf for the 2010-11 season, the NCAC will sponsor 23 championship sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.

DePauw will begin NCAC competition in 2011-12 in all sports with the exception of football, which, due to existing contracts, will begin play in 2012.

“The North Coast Athletic Conference is home to many of the most outstanding undergraduate liberal arts colleges in the lower Great Lakes states. We are as proud that all members host chapters of Phi Beta Kappa as we are of the high level of athletic competition that makes the NCAC one of the leading conferences in NCAA Division III,” said Dale Knobel, president of Denison University and president of the NCAC. “DePauw University already partners with other NCAC colleges in a variety of academic activities. It just seems natural that DePauw's student-athletes should now join their peers and friends of the NCAC on the playing field.”

The expansion brings the core NCAC membership to 10 NCAA Division III institutions stretching from Pennsylvania through Ohio to Indiana. DePauw joins Allegheny College (Meadville, Pa.), Denison University (Granville, Oh.), Hiram College (Hiram, Oh.), Kenyon College (Gambier, Oh.), Oberlin College (Oberlin, Oh.), Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, Oh.), Wabash College (Crawfordsville, In.), Wittenberg University (Springfield, Oh.) and the College of Wooster (Wooster, Oh.).

This addition provides permanent quality opponents for North Coast athletic teams and moving back to a 10-team core conference will help the NCAC retain its position in a region composed of conferences of similar or larger size.

Monday, June 14, 2010

From Waynesburg to the Mountain West Conference

The two seasons Andrea Williams, pictured, spent as head women's basketball coach at Waynesburg University were rather forgetable. Williams' teams compiled a 13-35 record, including 4-12 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, during the 19997-98 and 98-99 seasons.

That's not a way you want to start your career as a head coach.

Williams, however, will have another chance to be a head coach. Williams was recently named head coach at the Air Force Academy. Since leaving Waynesburg, Williams has been an assistant coach at several stops, including Navy and South Florida for the last two years. Williams is a graduate of Edinboro and played basketball and softball in the PSAC.