UMES
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A newsletter for stud ents, faculty, staff, alumni and friends CIRCLING
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April 11, 2014
WORLD
New Head Coach Named Bobby Collins, who leads men’s college basketball teams to conference championships and national tournament appearances, will be the next head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Collins, 48, comes to Princess Anne from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina where he was named head coach in 2006. His last four Ram teams averaged nearly 20 wins per season and qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Collins is no stranger to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Before taking the Winston-Salem State job, he was head coach for four years at Hampton (Va.) University, where he was MEAC’s 2005 coach of the year. His team won the conference tournament the following season, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. “The university has an opportunity to hire an outstanding coach. He’s an even finer person,” UMES athletics director Keith Davidson said. “He has a proven record of success at his previous institutions.” Collins was Hampton’s assistant head coach in 2001 when the 15th-seeded Pirates pulled off one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA tournament history, defeating the 2nd-seeded Iowa State Cyclones. Two years later, he was promoted to the head coaching position at Hampton and established a school record for most wins by a first-year coach. “He’s had great coaching experiences where he’s worked previously,” Davidson said. “He’s an excellent recruiter who has great relationships with
players and we believe he’s the right person for our program.” The university and Collins agreed to a four-year contract with a base salary of $135,000. Collins teaches an offense that puts a high value on fast-break scoring and he believes in employing man-to-man defense roughly two thirds of the time. He told the UMES search committee he expects his players to be “the hardest working team in the country,” and to follow a strict code of conduct off the court, including taking caps off when indoors and when traveling. In his 12 years as a head coach at two universities, Collins compiled a 181-171 record, including his first three years at Winston-Salem State when he was trying to position the basketball program to compete at the Division I level. Collins graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and management, and was a four-year letterman on the Colonels’ basketball team. He was selected to the Ohio Photo courtesy of WinstonSalem State University Valley Conference All-Freshmen team and was Honorable Mention All-Conference as a senior. Collins was as an admissions counselor at his alma mater from 1992 to 1994 before joining the Old Dominion University basketball program as a restricted earnings coach. He was on the Monarchs’ bench in 1995 when the Colonial Athletic Association champions shocked Villanova University during a first-round win in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Iconic civil rights leader to address 2014 UMES grads Congressman John R. Lewis will deliver the commencement address May 16 at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s spring 2014 graduation exercises. Lewis joins a distinguished list of Civil Rights activists who accepted invitations to speak to UMES graduates, including former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis, 74, is the lone surviving speaker among those who addressed an estimated 250,000 protesters at the August 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his signature “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. LEADER / continued on page 6
INSIDE
Page 2 Letter from President Bell Thompson Schedules Visit
Page 3 Singh Establishes Scholarship Employee Service Awards
Page 4 Honors Convocation Pharmacy Residency Program
Page 5 Fine Arts Student Show Barrett-Gaines Radio Show
Page 6 Van Norden Steps Down Golf Clinic
Page 7 Choral Festival Dinner Theatre MADE
Page 8 Calendar of Events