Notables

Alma women’s basketball coach Charlie Goffnett, who led the Scots to a national championship in 1992, announced that he will retire from that post.

Goffnett coached the Scots for 22 seasons during which he compiled a 334-217 record. Goffnett leaves as the MIAA’s winningest women’s basketball coach. His 334 wins put him in front of current Hope coach Brian Morehouse (315 wins).

The Scots reached the NCAA tournament five times under Goffnett’s leadership including the 1992 title run in which they won five games on the road. Alma defeated Moravian 79-75 to capture the school’s first national championship. Alma’s last trip to the NCAA tournament was 1997.

“Although I enjoyed all of our successes, the fact that our basketball program won the school’s first-ever National Championship is truly something that I hold dear to my heart,” said Goffnett in the school’s release. “Each of the coaches here at Alma College work very hard with our student athletes to be both good players, but more importantly, good people. The championship was great, but even better, was working with the athletes on the team, and I feel very fortunate to have had that opportunity.”

Goffnett will remain the head coach of the women’s golf team and lead special projects for the athletic department.

“I believe that this is the right time for me to step away from the basketball coaching aspect of my job and let someone else take our program to the next level. I am proud of what we have accomplished during the past 22 years here at Alma, and I have fond memories that will last forever.”

It says something when traveling to the two-time defending national champion isn't the most interesting game on the schedule. But for Augustana, heading to Wash U takes a back seat to the game that precedes it: a Dec. 9 date at Gonzaga.

Grey Giovanine's Vikings return just one starter from last year's 18-8 team, so the timing might not be the best. But this kind of opportunity doesn't present itself every year. "For our team to get a chance to compete against one of college basketball’s best programs in arguably the toughest home court environment in the nation, is a remarkable opportunity," said Giovanine, who is 183-79 (.698) in 10 seasons at Augustana.

"I have always had a good relationship with the Gonzaga staff and we appreciate this opportunity. This is a model program at the highest collegiate level and I think it is safe to say we will be the only Division III team in the country playing a regular season game against a perennial top-twenty Division I program."

Augustana also travels to UW-Whitewater (Dec. 22) and Buena Vista (Jan. 2), which will be a battle of two tournament bubble teams from 2009.

D3hoops.com is compiling 2009-10 men's and women's basketball schedules, and encourages SIDs to post their schedule when it is complete.

After turning Manhattanville into a conference contender in just three seasons, Candice Brown has left for another challenge: rebuilding Vassar.

Brown led the Valiants to an 18-11 record and an appearance in the MAC-Freedom Conference title game last season. The 18 wins were the program's most since 1983-1984 and helped earn Brown conference coach of the year honors. Brown put together consecutive winning seasons at Manhattanville in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 after taking over a program that was 7-18 the year before she arrived. She finished with a record of 38-42 in three years with the Valiants.

Now she'll try to achieve the same turnaround at Vassar, which was 4-21 last season. The Brewers are 28-91 over the last five seasons with just seven conference victories during that stretch. Vassar had no seniors and just one junior last season but expects to return two All-Liberty League selections, in Co-Rookie of the Year and All-League Honorable Mention point guard Brittany Parks and All-League Second Team forward Emily Haeuser. Brown becomes the 10th coach in Vassar women's basketball history.

A native of Arlington, Virginia, Brown graduated from Marymount in 2002 and moved into the coaching ranks immediately at Division II Southern New Hampshire University. After two seasons she joined head coach Bill Finney as an assistant at her alma mater where she was a three year standout as a player. Brown scored 1,130 points for Marymount and led the Saints to the national semifinals in 2002.

Southern Maine has announced that former women’s basketball coach Gary Fifield will return to the sidelines next season, reassuming the reins of a program he guided for 21 years before retiring from coaching last fall.

Fifield returns to the program he guided to a 541-86 record over 21 seasons after interim coach Mike McDevitt resigned to return to his alma mater, St. Joseph’s (Maine), as women’s basketball coach. In one season as the Huskies coach, McDevitt led the team to a 22-7 overall record, the Little East Conference tournament championship and a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

Southern Maine athletic director Al Bean indicated that McDevitt, who was hired on a one-year interim basis when Fifield retired, had been offered the head coaching position at USM following a search process to name Fifield’s permanent successor. At the same time, St. Joseph’s was seeking a new head coach following the departure of Deb Reardon after five seasons.

In 21 seasons, Fifield led the Huskies to the NCAA Division III Final Four five times (1988, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2006), including three appearances in the national championship game. Prior to the 2008-09 season, his .863 winning percentage was the highest among active Division III coaches with five or more years on the sidelines, and his 541 career wins ranked seventh among active coaches.

During that span (1987-2008), he guided the Huskies to 17 Little East Conference tournament championships, including 11 straight from 1997 through 2007, and won or shared the LEC regular season crown 19 times.

Fifield guided the Huskies to an NCAA tournament berth in 20 of his 21 seasons as head coach. His teams won 20 or more games every season, extending the Huskies’ streak of consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins to 28, an NCAA Division III women’s basketball record. Six players combined to win the Little East Conference Player of the Year award 11 times, and three players were named D3hoops.com All-Americans since 1998, including 2007 Player of the Year Ashley Marble.

Oswego State named its new head men’s basketball coach with a pick that will keep the East region coaching carousel spinning.

Adam Stockwell will be the next head coach for Oswego State after spending five seasons at Clarkson. Stockwell replaces Kevin Broderick who left Oswego State for his alma mater Nazareth who replaced retiring head coach Mike Daly. So now it is Clarkson’s turn to search for a new coach.

Stockton becomes the 15th head coach in the 86-year history of Oswego State after guiding Clarkson into postseason play in each of the past three seasons, including the Liberty League tournament title and the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2008. That same season, he went on to garner Coach of the Year accolades. In 2008-2009 the Golden Knights finished with a 15-11 record and reached the Liberty League semifinals for the second straight season as the number four seed, losing to NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” participant St. Lawrence.

Stockwell inherits an Oswego State squad that returns ten letterwinners and went 16-10, 11-5 in the SUNYAC last year. The Lakers finished in a four-way tie for first place and reached the Conference semifinals where they lost to Brockport State.

“We are very excited to welcome Adam as our new basketball coach,” said Director of Athletics Timothy G. Hale in Oswego’s release. “He brings a wealth of experience and success to our campus and we look forward to him continuing our tradition of achievement in this sport.”

Stockwell played collegiately at Division II LeMoyne College, where he was a three-year starter for the Dolphins (1993-1996). He averaged 21.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in his senior season, earning honorable mention All-America status after leading the team to a 24-6 record and an appearance in the NCAA Division II Championship tournament. He graduated in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and was named to the GTE/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) District I All-Academic Team. He was inducted to the LeMoyne College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.

Stockwell grew up just 35 minutes north of the Oswego State campus, graduating from Belleville-Henderson Central School in 1992 as a 2,000 point scorer. Along with father, James, the Stockwells are the only father-son combination in New York State High School basketball history to both score over 2,000 points.

John Rhodes, an assistant at Division I Northeastern, has been named head men’s basketball coach at Ohio Northern.

“Getting the opportunity to coach at Ohio Northern makes this the most memorable Memorial Day for my family and I,” Rhodes said. “It is a humbling experience to follow in the footsteps of such great coaches as Gale Daugherty, Joe Campoli and Jeff Coleman. I’m excited to grow the passion for ONU. The reputation of this school precedes it. I started looking at ONU and it didn’t take long to figure out that this is a great place to be. We look forward to helping our young players reach their potential. We are going to play hard and have some fun.”

Ohio Northern finished 18-9 this past season. Coleman stepped down after compiling a 73-34 mark in four seasons.

Northeastern finished the 2008-09 season with a 19-13 record and a third place finish in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 12-6 mark.

Rhodes spent nine seasons as an assistant at his alma mater, Ohio University, from 1999-2004 before being named the associate head coach prior to the 2004-05 season. While at Ohio, Rhodes helped lead the Bobcats to winning seasons in seven of his nine years, including four seasons in a row from 2004-08.

Ohio made the postseason twice in Rhodes’ tenure, winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament during the 2004-05 season and earning a berth to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational in 2007-08.

Before coaching, Rhodes played professional basketball in Europe for eight years, making stops in Germany, France and Iceland. In 1992, he was named the Icelandic Basketball League’s Most Valuable Player.

Rhodes was a four-year letterman for Ohio from 1984-88. A star center for the Bobcats, Rhodes served as team captain was named second-team All-MAC his senior year. In the Ohio career record books, he ranks third in field goal percentage (.567), fourth in blocked shots (121), and 10th in rebounds (744).

A Milwaukee native, Rhodes graduated from Ohio in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Public Relations.

Greensboro’s athletic department won’t have to do much to update its listing for the head women’s basketball coach. The USA South regular season champions can just change the first name from Jason to Randy.

Jason Tuggle resigned his position as the Pride’s head coach to become the Director of Athletics at his high school alma mater J.M. Morehead High School in Eden, North Carolina. Tuggle also stepped down as the head men’s and women’s cross country coach. Tuggle took the Pride to the 2005, 2006 and 2009 NCAA Tournaments and posted a 138-58 record. Last year Tuggle led the Pride to a 27-3 record, an undefeated run through regular season conference play and a first round NCAA Tournament win over Mississippi College.

"As good as Jason is as a coach, he is an even better person and a real difference maker with people,” Pride Athletics Director Kim Strable said. “His tremendous influence with the student-athletes and colleagues at Greensboro College will be sorely missed and we wish him and his family nothing but the very best."

Strable has a good reason to wish the Tuggle family well because Jason’s cousin Randy will take over as the Pride’s new head coach. Randy was Jason’s lead assistant for seven seasons after coaching at two high schools in North Carolina. Randy was also a four year letter winner at UNC-Greensboro.

Castleton State associate dean for athletics and recreation, Deanna Tyson, is pleased to announce the hiring of Paul Culpo as the men's basketball head coach. Culpo beat out more than 200 applicants to become the 19th head coach in Castleton history.

Culpo has spent the past six seasons at Hartwick, taking a team that went 2-22 his first season to 15-12 and an ECAC Upstate championship, the first in the program's history. He compiled a 49-102 record.

“We are very happy to have Paul on board.” Tyson stated. “Paul is committed to the Division III philosophy, and has shown the ability to recruit young men of high character and talent while at Hartwick. I have no doubts that he will do the same here at Castleton.”

Culpo has coached at all levels of basketball, including a stint coaching a professional team in Europe, and stops at Division I UMass-Amherst, and Division II Saint Michael’s.

Prior to Hartwick, Culpo spent two years as a member of the UMass-Amherst coaching staff, working under Head Coach Steve Lappas. While at UMass-Amherst, he assisted with the marketing, production and operations of the Steve Lappas Basketball School. He was also charged with the day-to-day directing of the men’s basketball coaches’ office, including video exchange, scouting reports, recruiting and travel budgets.

Culpo spent three years as an assistant at Saint Michael’s, helping the Purple Knights to three consecutive postseason appearances. Culpo led much of the recruiting efforts that produced an NCAA Tournament bid and a 25-9 record 1999, and an ECAC Division II title in 2000 as the team finished 20-9.

Culpo graduated cum laude from St. Michael's with a bachelor of arts in American studies, and earned a master's degree in creative and critical thinking in education from UMass-Boston in 1996, while an assistant under coach Charlie Titus.

“I am excited to be a part of the Castleton community, which truly is a college on the rise.” Culpo said. “While I truly enjoyed my time at Hartwick, and will miss many of the people and players, this opportunity was just too good to pass up. With the brand new facilities, commitment from the administration and community support, we hope to be very successful, very soon.”

The Great South Athletic Conference office announces Salem College as the conference's eighth member. The presidents and athletic directors of the GSAC voted unanimously to accept Salem with full membership status becomes effective when the 2009-10 academic year begins.

Salem is a women's institution located in Winston-Salem, N.C. The school, founded in 1772, is the oldest educational institution for women in the United States. The Spirits compete in basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball. As part of its membership acceptance, Salem will provide a written commitment and an accompanying timetable for the sponsorship of softball as a varsity sport.

Current member institutions will adjust individual sports schedules to include Salem during the 2009-10 season. Qualification for postseason play will depend on the scheduling criteria of individual sports and, in some cases, may have to be delayed until the following year.

Bernadette Laukaitis resigned her position as Cabrini's head women's basketball coach to join her own former head coach at Division I University of Pennsylvania.

Laukaitis took an assistant position under new Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin who coached her as a player at Division II Holy Family. She also served as his assistant for eight years at Holy Family. Laukaitis went 23-5 in her only season at Cabrini, the program's most wins since 1995-1996. She led the Cavaliers to the Colonial States Athletic Conference championship and their sixth trip to the NCAA tournament.

“Bernadette’s accomplishments at Cabrini in one season were remarkable,” Cabrini's Director of Athletics & Recreation Joe Giunta said. “She led our team to the conference title and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. We wish Bernadette the best in her new position at Penn.”

A national search for Cabrini’s next women’s basketball coach will begin immediately.