Wartburg SID tabbed ‘rising star’

I know this isn’t necessarily volleyball-specific, but congratulations to Wartburg sports information director KatieJo Kuhens for winning the College Sports Information Directors of America Rising Star Award, college division. The Wartburg site provided live volleyball streams from creative angles and had some of the best volleyball photography.

Sports information departments all around the Central and Midwest regions were great last season. The fact that some guy can sit at a computer and follow two volleyball regions with relative ease is a testament to the SID’s. It’s also nice to be able to watch a match on the east coast, west coast and points in between whenever there’s a desire because many (most?) programs have the resources to do so. The live coverage page on the right rail has grown exponentially since the blog’s inception. Match recaps and previews, stats, and box scores in the two regions have reached a nearly uniform level of expediency as well.

I may try to amp up my kudos for providing great coverage. Off the top of my head, I know I have mentioned Saint Mary’s in the past. Again off the top of my head, I also like the depth of the streaming match commentary at: Washington-St. Louis, St. Scholastica, Edgewood, Luther, Elmhurst, Benedictine and most of the MIAC institutions. I don’t peruse many galleries, but the volleyball photography at St. Olaf is fantastic.

Congrats to Kuhens. Thank you to the others.
[Sincerely not the reason for the post, but any and all SID’s can hire me if they so choose]

-Ricky Nelson

2013 drive-by coaching update

The wind chill is well below zero, so it must be time for an offseason coaching update in the Central and Midwest regions.

Wheaton (Ill.) 27-year head coach Jennifer King Soderquist is retiring. A national search is underway.

Hamline three-year head coach Audrey Ludwig stepped down in order to accept an assistant position at Maryland. A national search is underway.

Wartburg promoted Doug Frazell to co-head coach along with Jennifer Walker. Frazell had been associate head coach for head coach Walker.

Finlandia named Kristan Schuster as its new head coach. Schuster had been the head coach at Hancock (Mich.) Central High School since 1997.

Aurora named James Seitelman as its new head coach. Seitelman had been the head coach at Merchant Marine for the past three seasons.

Concordia Wisconsin 13-year head coach Joe Cawley stepped down. The new coach at CUW has not been announced.

Westminster (Mo.) named Curtis Madson as its new head coach. Madson had been an assistant at UW-Parkside.

Brandie Mullink is the new head coach at Blackburn. Mullink is a teacher in the North Mac (Ill.) School District.

Bethany Lutheran named John Olmanson as its new head coach. Olmanson had been the head coach at Como Park (Minn.) High School.

Northland named Kim Falkenhagen as its new head coach. Falkenhagen had been an assistant at Northern Michigan.

For anyone who cares, I’m writing the Around the Nation column at D3baseball.com again this season. In related news, I’m still not employed at a sports information department.

Happy recruiting season, everyone.

-Ricky Nelson