Ten days after President Richard Brodhead reinstated the men's lacrosse team, the search for a permanent head coach and the recruiting process are well under way.
Director of Athletics Joe Alleva said some members of the search committee will be Athletic Council Chair Kathleen Smith, women's lacrosse head coach Kerstin Kimel, psychology professor Martha Putallaz, Vice President of Campus Services Kemel Dawkins and Assistant Dean of Students Todd Adams.
Once the committee is finalized, which is expected to occur by the end of the week, it will begin work on paring down the applicants to a short list of about four to be interviewed.
Senior Associate Director of Athletics Chris Kennedy, who is in charge of collecting applications, said he had already received about 15, made up of a mixture of college head coaches and assistant coaches. The Athletics Department's focus will be to attract a top head coach from another program, Alleva said.
"My first priority will be to hire a head coach-someone who has experience as a head coach, someone who has an excellent track record as far as discipline on his team, with academics and with winning," Alleva said. "I'm looking for the whole package."
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A list of candidates that fit that bill could include St. John's Rick Sowell, Notre Dame's Kevin Corrigan and Hofstra's John Danowski. Sowell declined to comment specifically on the Blue Devils' opening, but Newsday of Long Island, N.Y. has reported his and Corrigan's interest.
John Danowski, whose son Matt will be a senior on Duke's team next season, confirmed to The Chronicle that he had applied for the head coach job.
Other coaches who may be on Duke's list include Princeton's Bill Tierney and Johns Hopkins' Dave Pietramala. Both coaches have won national championships at their respective schools, however, and could be harder to pry away from their current jobs.
Tierney and Pietramala said they had not yet been contacted by Duke and are happy in their current jobs. Neither would comment on whether they would consider Duke's opening.
"It's not often that a job like this opens," Tierney said. "They'll end up with someone very, very good."
For any coach under contract, the general practice would be to contact the school's athletic director, and that process has already begun, Alleva said.
Alleva hopes the coaching search will be completed by Aug. 1, or potentially sooner, but he noted that getting the committee together for a speedy interview process over the summer could be difficult.
"I think we'll have an excellent coach," Alleva said.
Meanwhile, interim head coach Kevin Cassese hit the recruiting trail after his introductory press conference last week. The incoming freshman class originally included seven members, and three-Ken Clausen, Scott Kocis and Tom Dodge-committed to other schools when Duke released them from their national letters of intent in April.
Joining that group is Craig Dowd, an attackman from Northport, N.Y., whose older brother Kyle was a senior on Duke's team this past season. The younger Dowd will enroll at Georgetown in January instead of Duke, Kennedy said.
The three remaining recruits-Max Quinzani, Parker McKee and Terrence Molinari-are all expected to be Blue Devils for the 2007 season.
Quinzani, who holds the national high school scoring record for men's lacrosse, said Wednesday that Cassese had traveled to Duxbury, Mass., to watch him play in the state championship game.
"Everything is final," Quinzani said with respect to his recruiting process. "[Cassese] is really stepping up to the plate right now for me and the other guys on the team."
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