LSSU Lakers notebook

NEWS RELEASE

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

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Mercyhurst and Gannon will leave the GLIAC in 2008-09

Michigan-based GLIAC will have 12 full-time members including Tiffin

Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst College President Dr. Thomas Gamble announced that the school has accepted an offer to join the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) as full-time members. Mercyhurst will join long-time rival Gannon in making the switch from the Michigan-based Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), in which the Lakers competed since 1995.

Mercyhurst will begin full membership into the PSAC beginning in the 2008-09 season, competing for one more year in the GLIAC.

"Mercyhurst College is excited to be joining the PSAC for the 2008-09 season," Gamble said. "This move provides benefits for our student-athletes, coaches and administration. We already have developed great rivalries with some of the PSAC members such as Edinboro and IUP, and we anticipate this move to enhance that across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

The move will affect 17 of the college's 25 varsity sports. Baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, and women's volleyball will all move from the GLIAC to the PSAC. As well, the sports of field hockey, women's lacrosse and wrestling will no longer be independent schools and will compete in the PSAC. Women's golf will lose conference sponsorship and will move to independent status.

Men's hockey will remain in Division I Atlantic Hockey (AH) and women's hockey will remain in Division I College Hockey America (CHA). As well, men's lacrosse will stay in the East Coast Conference (ECC) and men's and women's rowing will still compete in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC). Men's and women's water polo will remain in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) and men's volleyball will stay in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA).

The school should benefit in a number of ways from the move. Regional rivalries against schools such as Edinboro, Clarion and Slippery Rock will thrive, while the shorter trips (the average drive to a GLIAC school is 427 miles, while the average drive to a PSAC school is 246 miles) will allow Mercyhurst's student-athletes to stay focused on academics and stay fresher through long athletic seasons. As well, with a majority of Mercyhurst's student-athletes hailing from Pennsylvania, the move will allow those athletes to play more road games in front of family and friends.

The inclusion of the two Erie-based schools elevates the PSAC to 16 full-time members. They become the first schools to be added to the league since its official formation in 1951. The league's current members - Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania were all charter members. The only variation to the membership came in the mid 1980s when West Chester explored a move to Division I.

LSSU notes: With the addition of Tiffin, the GLIAC will have 12 full-time members in 2008-09...The Gannon women's basketball coaching staff includes former Laker point guard Randy Johnson, who was recently promoted to No. 1 assisant coach.

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Troy and Tethnie Forbes resign coaching positions

Tethnie Forbies is named head coach at Elmhurst

SAULT STE. MARIE - Lake Superior State University was a brief, albeit fulfilling stopover for the husband-wife coaching tandem of Troy and Tethnie Forbes.

The Forbeses are returning to the Chicago area following Tethnie's appointment as head coach of the Elmhurst College women's basketball team. She recently resigned her position as an assistant women's basketball coach at LSSU, and was named Elmhurst's head coach this week. Troy Forbes, who spent one season as an assistant coach with the LSSU men's program, also resigned his position and is currently seeking a new coaching job.

Tethnie has moved three times for the sake of Troy's career advancement, and Troy is more than willing to return the favor. During their 10-year marriage, coaching has taken the Forbeses from their home state of Kansas to Missouri to Illinois to Michigan and back to Illinois.

"I always thought that if one of us could get a head job, it would be awesome," Troy said to Tethnie. "And you beat me to it."

"After I was offered the head job at Elmhurst, he just wasn't worried," Tethnie said of her husband's impending need to update his resume. "He is confident that something will come along."

Tethnie's success at finding jobs while following Troy's career track gives him plenty of reason to remain positive. When Troy took an assistant coach's position at Elmhurst College five years ago, Tethnie had already started a teaching job at Jefferson C-123 High School in Conception Junction, Mo., and was slated to become the school's head softball and track coach. She considered staying in Missouri for another year, but left for Chicago in late August and quickly landed a position at an elementary school within an hour's drive of Elmhurst. She became part of the Elmhurst coaching staff during the same year.

Troy, an avid fisherman, jumped at the chance to coach at Lake Superior State, and the Forbeses moved to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last summer. At that time, Jamie Pewinski had just been promoted from LSSU women's assistant coach to head coach, and the top candidate to fill her former position declined at the last minute. Pewinski met Tethnie when Troy came up for his interview and took a closer look at her resume. Tethnie proved to be a perfect fit for the Laker women's staff.

"Everyone here is so friendly - everywhere you go," Tethnie said of Sault Ste. Marie. "If you're ever in a bind, there are a handful of people there to help you in a second."

"People in the city are always doing their own thing," said Troy, contrasting life in the U.P. to Chicago. "You're mingling with strangers all of the time. I grew up in a town just like Sault Ste. Marie. I like the lakes, the fishing and the woods. I went up to Canada a lot. The winter was kind of tough, but it was a neat experience."

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