Knox names new head coach

Shayla Chalker is the new head coach at Knox College. Chalker was most recently an assistant coach at Culver-Stockton College.

-Ricky Nelson

Regional dates, perhaps primary criteria to change

Regionals will start a day later next season. No word yet on whether teams can file a waiver to avoid playing on Sundays. My personal guess is that the Great Lakes Regional will still be played Thursday-Saturday while the others start a day later. From the NCAA release:

Approved a request from the Division III Women’s Volleyball Committee to revise the championship date formula for the 2012 and 2013 championships so that the regionals are played Friday-Sunday instead of Thursday-Saturday.

The Championships Committee also approved a proposal that, beginning in 2013-14, would mandate teams play at least 70 percent of their competition in-region, up from 50 percent in prior seasons.

But the NCAA paired that proposal with one that makes all D-III contests part of the primary selection criteria. If adopted, a match would be a match, regardless of who you play. In the past only in-region contests were considered in the primary criteria. Non-D-III competition would still be considered in the secondary criteria.

The NCAA Management Council will vote on the 70-percent in-region mandate and the “match is a match” proposals in mid-April.

-Ricky Nelson

Drive-by head coach update

Some coaching vacancies in the Midwest and Central regions have been filled. Thought I’d pop in and post an update.

I hope your off-seasons are going well. I’m keeping my tools sharp by writing the Around the Nation column for D3baseball.com this season. My first ATN column debuted Feb. 8 and will run each Wednesday. Check out that this year if it’s something that interests you. I’m still lacking a sports information department position, so if you have one of those to offer … All right, enough with the self-promotion.

Here are the new coaches. Welcome, all, and good luck.
• Lori DeJongh-Slight, Buena Vista University. DeJongh-Slight was most recently the head coach at Creston (Iowa) High School.
• Rayna Cain, Nebraska Wesleyan University. Cain was most recently an assistant coach at Des Moines Area Community College.
• Heather Noll, Lake Forest College. Noll was most recently the head coach at Buena Vista University.
• Alison Shepp, Concordia University Chicago. Shepp was most recently the director of operations for the Northwestern (Ill.) University volleyball program.
• Kim Bukowski, Lakeland College. Bukowski was most recently a graduate assistant coach at Valparaiso University.
• Meredith Heater, Fontbonne University. Heater was most recently the head coach at Lewis & Clark Community College.
• Lily Hallock, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Hallock was most recently a graduate assistant coach at Smith College.

-Ricky Nelson