Your future, our focus
BY RANDAL HOROBIK
Tribune Sports Editor
The list of possible candidates to fill the vacant Northwest College head volleyball coaching position has been pared to three people. Those individuals will visit campus later this month to complete the interview process.
“We feel pretty strongly about the candidates,” said Northwest College athletic director Andy Ward. “I look forward to meeting each one in person and getting to know a little more about them and their coaching styles.”
Between the three candidates, virtually every level of collegiate volleyball is represented.
Shaun Pohlman will visit campus on Wednesday. Pohlman has spent the last four seasons at the helm of the Dodge City Community College program in the rugged Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, consistently tabbed as one of the nation’s most competitive junior college leagues.
There, Pohlman took over a program in transition from Division II to Division I, helping improve the team’s record from 4-31 before his arrival to 27-10 this past season. Along the way, he was named one of the conference’s two Coach of the Year award recipients for the 2008 season.
On Thursday, Northwest College will welcome Lindsey Mesner, a two-year assistant coach at Defiance College in Ohio. In addition to serving as the assistant at Defiance, Mesner has also served as an assistant coach at Kirkwood Community College and at Waldorf College. She is a graduate of Cornell College in Iowa, where she competed in both volleyball and basketball. Mesner served as the captain for both teams her senior season, lettered all four years in both sports and was named the team’s most outstanding volleyball player.
Greg Spector is the final finalist for the vacant NWC position. Spector has served the past three seasons as the head coach at Bridgewater College, an NCAA Division III program in Virginia. Prior to that, he served as the head women’s volleyball coach for Maccabi USA Sports and recruited nationally for top-level players to play at the international level.
He has also served as the assistant coach at NCAA Division I Marshall University and Division II Urbana University. Spector will make his visit to Powell on Feb. 28.
In addition to interviewing and touring the campus, each of the coaching candidates will conduct a mock coaching session during their time on campus.