Two new hoops coaches welcomed

The Huskies named two new head basketball coaches in April: Bill Coen, for the men's team, and Daynia La-Force Mann, on the women's side.

Forty-four-year-old Coen, who served as an assistant coach at Boston College for the past nine years, is "the best evaluator of talent in college basketball," says Northeastern athletics director Dave O'Brien.

A former Raytheon software engineer, Coen spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Rhode Island, and three years at Hamilton College, his alma mater. He also coached for a year at New York's Canajoharie High School, where he was named Coach of the Year. He holds a master's degree in business administration.

La-Force Mann, thirty-three, comes to Northeastern from the University of New Haven, where she spent two seasons as head coach and led the team to a conference championship.

She spent the previous ten years as an assistant coach at St. John's University and Long Island University. As an undergraduate, she played basketball at Georgetown, advancing with her team to the 1993 NCAA Sweet Sixteen. La-Force Mann holds a master's degree in psychology.

In mid-March, previous women's head coach Willette White announced she was resigning to focus on a career path in athletics administration. Two weeks after White's announcement, men's coach Ron Everhart resigned to become the head basketball coach at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh.

White had been a head coach at Northeastern for six seasons, Everhart for five.

O'Brien says both Coen and La-Force Mann have proven records as recruiters and feel strongly about the importance of balancing athletics with academics. The new coaches promise to play an exciting style of basketball. They also hope to play winning basketball, a sure-fire way to attract good players and build the fan base.

• E Line Story Index