Wednesday, September 03, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - ETSU women's basketball head coach Karen Kemp announced the hiring of two new assistant coaches and promoted DeShawne Blocker to recruiting coordinator Wednesday afternoon.

Both Josh Wick and Kelvin Long join Kemp's staff as full-time assistant coaches; while Blocker enters her third season with the Lady Bucs and first as the club's recruiting coordinator.

"My entire coaching staff is very energetic and eager for the season to begin," commented Kemp. "Their youth is a big plus, because they are all hungry to continue learning and having our program reach higher levels."

Blocker, who enters her third year on coach Kemp's staff, will take over the reigns of recruiting coordinator as well as continue her focus on the post play. The all-time Lady Buccaneer standout has made huge strides since arriving in 2006, as ETSU reached post-season play in the previous two seasons. Part of the reason for the great success deals with Blocker's tremendous job with her post players. Blocker helped coach Latisha Belcher (Martinsville, Va.) to back-to-back Atlantic Sun All-Tournament Team accolades; including All-Tournament MVP honors last season. In addition to Belcher, Blocker guided Michele DeVault (Columbus, Ohio) to All-Atlantic Sun honors the past two seasons, and Devin Thompson (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) to the All-Freshman Team in 2007. During her four-year Lady Buc career, Blocker was an outstanding scorer and rebounder, and now those traits are rubbing off on the current players. Last season, ETSU set new single-season records in points scored (2,478) and rebounds (1,360), both of which were previously held by teams Blocker played on.