Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Spartanburg, S.C. - USC Upstate head men's basketball coach Eddie Payne is used to having received his fair share of accolades in a coaching career that dates back to his days as an assistant coach in 1975. Payne, however, has reached a singular achievement as the only active NCAA Division I men's basketball head coach to serves as a head coach on all five levels of men's collegiate basketball, serving as head coach on the NCAA Division I, II and III levels, as well as in the ranks of the NAIA and Junior College.

Research was conducted by the Upstate Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations Bill English and the media relations office by sending out a mass e-mail through Eric Moyer, Director of Communications at the Atlantic Sun Conference. The e-mail generated responses by media relations personnel from conference offices and sports information/media relations directors from colleges and universities. In addition, the Web sites of each of the other 340 Division I schools were researched to determine the head coaching background of each Division I head coach.

Upon completion of the research, Payne can now claim to be the only active NCAA Division I head coach to coach at all five levels of college basketball. Currently, three NCAA Division I head coaches have served as head coaches at four of the five levels of college basketball. Michigan's John Belein and Central Arkansas' Rand Chappell have each served as head coaches in NCAA Division I and II, NAIA and the JUCO ranks, but have not been a head coach on the NCAA Division III level. UC Santa Barbara's Bob Williams has been a head coach at all three NCAA divisions (I, II and III) as well as in the JUCO ranks, but has not been a head coach in the NAIA.

"I don't know that being the only one (to be a head coach at every level of college basketball) is necessarily a big thing, I think it basically says I have had a lot of experience at all of the different levels and it has turned out to be a good thing," said Payne. "All of the stops have been unique experiences."