OK. I have not even touched this blog in, oh, half a year. I’m sorry for that … and I’m also sorry that I may not step back in here for a long time after that.
I write this because I started it and need to finish it. It is the list of head coaching vacancies in all Division I schools … last year. Not during this off-season, but the one previous. Yeah, it’s useless now. I wanted to be thorough in how I found out which colleges were searching for new head coaches, so I scoured by conference. But that took so long that once I had to do something else (that something being something I now forget), I kind of looked at the conferences I still needed to sift for news and I mentally told me to put this blog post on the backburner and get to it when I can.
Uh, that time is now, a full year late. Sorry. I have little good excuse, and this article is nothing that will do anyone any good. My intention was to write a definitive list of all the head coaching changes for the upcoming season. And that is what I want to complete. And so, here, very late, it is:
Air Force (contract of Penny Lucas-White was not renewed Nov. 23; replaced by Matt McShane, assistant coach at Cal, Jan. 26)
Austin Peay (Mike Johnson resigned to take the head coaching job at Xavier June 29; assistant coach Haley Janicek promoted July 9)
Ball St. (Dave Boos resigned to be an assistant at Florida Mar. 3; replaced by Steve Shondell, head coach at a high school[!!!] in Muncie, Ind. for 34 years [!!!], Aug. 3)
Boston College (Andrea Leonard “resigned” Dec. 3; replaced by Chris Campbell, assistant/associate head coach at Auburn, Feb. 3)
DePaul (Amy Hardison “resigned” Dec. 16; replaced by Nadia Edwards, assistant at Ohio St., Feb. 12)
Eastern Illinois (Alan Segal resigned Jan. 20; assistant coach Kate Price promoted, Mar. 1)
Georgia St. (contract of Mike Webster not renewed Mar. 3; replaced by Tami Ores, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Maryland, Apr. 14)
Houston (Bill Walton “resigned” [after 24 years] Nov. 25; replaced by Molly Alvey, associate head coach at Ole Miss, Jan. 25)
Howard (Orlando Larracuente “resigned” Feb. 19; replaced by Dawn Barnes, volunteer assistant coach at Pitt, Jun. 14)
James Madison (Disa Garner “resigned” Dec. 15; replaced by Lauren Sauer, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Kentucky, Jan. 25)
Louisiana-Monroe (John Schmidt resigned Nov. 27, effective Jan. 1; replaced by Ernest Vasquez, assistant coach at Kent St., Feb. 12)
Loyola Marymount (contract of Steve Stratos not renewed [after 20 years] Dec. 2; replaced by Tom Black, head coach at Div. II UC-San Diego, Jan. 19)
McNeese St. (Dale Starr leaves to be head coach at Robert Morris Apr. 13; replaced by Terry Gamble, head coach at junior Midland Lutheran College, May 7)
Nicholls St. (Chris Laird “resigned” Jun. 21; replaced by TeAna Tramel, assistant coach at Washington St., Jul. 28)
N.C. St. (Charita J. Stubbs fired Dec. 1; replaced by Bryan Bunn, associate head coach at Baylor, Feb. 19)
North Texas (contract of Cassie Headrick not renewed — announced Dec. 1, effective Jan. 31; replaced by Ken Murczek, assistant coach at Kansas, Jan. 19)
Northwestern St. (Brittany Uffelman resigned Nov. 19; replaced by Hugh & Stephanie Hernesman, assistant coach/recruiting coordinator and volunteer assistant coach, respectively, at Ball St. – [I don't understand how husband-wife co-head coaches ever work], Dec. 22)
Pacific (interim coach Dave Johnson … did not have the interim label taken off his title and thus was let go Nov. 25; Greg Gibbons, associate head coach at UC-Santa Barbara, hired Jan. 28)
Robert Morris (for the life of me I can’t find a page anywhere announcing that Rob Thomas was replaced; why is that? Did something happen? Is there something shady going on? He still has a page on the RMU website with phone number and everything. Replaced by Dave Starr, head coach at McNeese St., Apr. 14)
Southern Miss (Ricci Luyties left to become head coach at Div. II UC-San Diego Mar. 22; assistant coach Abbey Sutherland promoted, May 13)
St. Francis (NY) (Another Northeast Conference school, another empty paper trail about why the previous coach is gone; Lucy Liriano was the coach but “stepped down” sometime in the spring. Unlike at Robert Morris, I can’t find a page for Liriano on the St. Francis website, so no link, sorry. Replaced by Micah Acobah, head coach at John Jay, Jul. 7)
Towson (Paul Koncir “resigned” Nov. 24; replaced by Bruce Atkinson, head coach at Hawai’i-Hilo, Feb. 26)
UCLA (The big one: the legendary Andy Banachowski, basically the only head coach the Bruins’ woman’s program has ever known, announced on Jan. 11 that he was retiring when his contract ended Jun. 30; replaced by Mike Sealy, associate head coach at Hawai’i, Feb. 10)
West Virginia (After becoming head coach after the Mountaineers’ first year in existence and staying for 35 years, Veronica Hammersmith announced on Jul. 23 that she would no longer coach the team and would retire after serving out her contract, which ended — well, today, Jun. 30, 2011; replaced by Jill Kramer, assistant coach at Virginia, Aug. 10)
Winston-Salem St. (OK, this is weird: Douglas Hunter was the coach, but at some point in the off-season, he was no longer the coach. No press release, and I can’t find a reason why, although here’s a bio on WSSU’s website; replaced by Lataya Hilliard-Gray, who, get this, not only coached the team once before but is also the school’s softball coach [and has been since 2002]. These HBCU’s need to keep costs down, I guess, but then again … if volleyball’s played in the fall and softball in the spring, it kind of fits, doesn’t it? Anyway, I have no idea when she got hired, as there is no press release or news story I can find for this announcement either)
Xavier (After 20 years, Floyd Deaton resigned — though it’s not clear if he “resigned” – May 4; replaced by Mike Johnson, head coach at Austin Peay, Jun. 28)
Youngstown St. (Follow me here: Joe Bonner was fired Nov. 14; replaced by Chad Esposito, assistant coach at Charlotte, Dec. 23; resigned due to homesickness [well, I don't really know, it's just a guess, but what else could it be?] Jan. 15; replaced with Krista Burrows, head coach at NAIA Walsh University, Jan. 25)
