LSC hires new soccer coach, seeking new basketball coach

5/8/07

By Andrew R. Koch
Sports Editor

The Hornets have found one new coach and are looking to find another.

Jim Davis, the husband of administrative assistant Traci Davis, has been hired as the new head coach for women’s soccer. The athletic department is still searching for a new head coach for men’s basketball.

Former head coach Miles Etter decided to leave because he found that it was more difficult to balance both his full-time job and coaching, according to Athletic Director Chris Ummer. Ummer was very appreciative of the job Etter did as head coach.

“He did a wonderful job,” Ummer said. “He raised the bar for the program, and he did it effectively. Under his tenure, the women had their most success, by far.”

Davis, who graduated from North Country Union High School and Middlebury College, was hired because of his vision for the future of the school’s women’s soccer program.

“As much as Miles raised the bar, I’d like to see that bar continue to be raised,” Ummer said. He added that part of Davis’ vision for the team is to make it competitive with any Division III program in New England.

Because of confidentiality issues, Ummer couldn’t name who the other three candidates were for the position. He did say that all of them were “external to New England,” including one from Britain.

As for the former men’s basketball head coach Randy Rathburn, the athletic department decided to go in a different direction in terms of leadership in the coaching position, according to Ummer. This move follows the team’s struggles each of the last two years. One of the candidates for the position is Assistant Coach and Sports Information Director Bill Johnson. Ummer confirmed that Johnson has submitted an application for the job, but again because of confidentiality issues, couldn’t name any other candidates. Because of his candidacy for the position, Johnson was unable to comment.

Ummer says that he’s forming a search committee, which will begin looking for a new coach within the next one to two weeks. The athletic department hopes to have a new coach in place by the beginning of June.

While the athletic department would like to see all its varsity sports have winning teams, Ummer says that the student athletes’ experiences are even more important.

“We’d like to see all our student athletes have a positive experience with every component of every program. The head coach plays a pretty key role in that,” Ummer said.

Ummer is very hopeful that the new coach will make the team more competitive next season, when the athletic programs begin competition in the North Atlantic Conference.

“We got a lot of talent on the men’s basketball team. We got a lot of returning talent,” Ummer said, adding that recruiting is a very large part in the team’s success.

“You bring in good folks with people who have good knowledge, that’s a lethal weapon,” when it comes to having winning programs, Ummer says.