St. Olaf hires Stevens Point assistant Jerry Olszewski, most recently the defensive coordinator at UW-Stevens Point, has been named head coach at St. Olaf, athletic director Matt McDonald announced Monday morning. Olszewski, a graduate of UW-Stevens Point, spent a total of seven seasons as an assistant at Division II Minnesota State-Mankato (1993-96, 1999-02) before a three-year stint as the CEO of the Mankato YMCA. He also spent one season as the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Bombers of the Arena Football league (1999) and one as an assistant at Cal Lutheran (1998) as defensive line coach. Olszewski replaces Chris Meidt, who resigned in February to take an offensive assistant position with the NFL's Washington Redskins. St. Olaf has gone 8-2 in each of the last three seasons and was ranked as high as 13th in 2007. | |
| Permalink | Apr 2, 2008 | |
Nichols coordinator hired at Mount Ida Mount Ida athletic director Jacqueline Palmer announced the hiring of Mike Landers as football coach. Landers has been the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach with Nichols for the past two years. He replaces Ed Sweeney, who coached Mount Ida to a 22-51 record in eight seasons and has a 114-111-4 overall record including stops at Division III Dickinson and Frostburg State. Mount Ida was 3-7 in 2007. "I want to bring back a perennial winning tradition that the campus and students can be proud of," said Landers. "I want to put my players in a position where I’m preparing them for life, through football." Landers, who started with Nichols as the coordinator of the front seven/linebackers coach in 2005, had one of the top ranked defenses in the New England Football Conference this past season, leading the league in many statistical categories. After taking over in 2006 as defensive coordinator, he helped the Bison rebound off a tough 0-9 record in '05 going 5-4 overall in '06, one of the biggest turnarounds in the NCAA that year. He said, "I want to teach my players how to fight and win football games together." In 2004, Landers served as linebackers coach for Wesleyan. He took a team who was last in turnovers the season prior, to a team who would lead the conference in takeaways along with the help of his colleagues. Landers had previously spent five years at Division II Stonehill, including coaching linebackers in 2003, where he led two all-conference and all New-England linebackers, one of whom set the school and conference career tackles record. Landers walked on at Georgia Tech and received his bachelors from Bridgewater State in 2001. "I want my players to learn that if you hit a rough patch in life, you're able to get yourself through it. I have two goals, winning football games and graduating players. These kids should learn to fight for what they want in life, and I will help them through football," said Landers. | |
| Permalink | Apr 2, 2008 | |
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