Comings and goings

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Posted: 8/23/04

Going

... from Cross Country is John McInerney. The eight year head coach of the track and field team decided to step down to become a full-time teacher in the physical education department. The coach also wanted to spend more time with his family, citing his two young boys as a major reason for trying to find some more time to stay home.

"Coach McInerney was the kind of guy that everybody loved having involved with the program here at Eastern," Director of Athletics Richard McDuffie said. "He worked up some great relationships between his co-workers and his athletes over his time here; it is hard to trade him in for anybody else."

Coming

... into Cross Country is Geoff Masanet. The former disciple of McInerney, Masanet's connection with the departing coach stretches all the way back to high school when McInerney coached Masanet. Masanet's previous coaching experience came from Missouri-Kansas City, where he had spent five years coaching in the Mid-Continent Conference.

"The first thing that stands out about (Masanet) is his passion for the university," McDuffie said. "The next thing about him is the past experience that he has accumulated at Missouri-Kansas City. He has a knack for hard work and getting the job done the right way."

Going

... from Women's Basketball is Linda Wunder. Wunder spent five years on the Eastern bench as the women's head coach, but in that time accumulated only 36 victories in 137 games. Eastern decided to go a different direction after the season ended and the team could only muster a ninth-place finish in the OVC, thus eliminating the team from competing in the OVC Tournament.

"Linda was a fine person but things just didn't materialize over the course of the five years she was here," McDuffie said. "I don't know about things falling apart between the team and her last year, it was just a matter of not getting the results all of us thought would come."

Coming

... into Women's Basketball is Brady Sallee. While Sallee has never had head coaching experience, he has spent time at three different Division I schools as an assistant coach. The last school that Sallee was an assistant coach at was East Carolina University where he spent two years. Before spending time at East Carolina, Sallee also worked at Kent State and Idaho State. Sallee named two new assistants over the summer. Rekha Patterson, who was a graduate assistant for Baylor's women's team, and former Eastern standout Lauren Dailey, who just finished her career at Eastern last year were selected. They will join Eryn Ivnik, the only coach remaining from last year, in assisting Sallee.

"One of the things that made him standout is the pure enthusiasm that he brings to the position," McDuffie said. "After looking at other candidates, it came down to the person who we thought would bring the excitement and the other necessary skills to the job, and it was obvious that he brought that to the table."