The appointment was announced on Thursday by ULM President Nick Bruno in a press release.

During a press conference on Friday morning, Richard said he will assist outgoing athletic director Bobby Staub with the day-to-day operations of the ULM athletic department until a new athletic director is hired.

Staub, who resigned on April 16, will take some leave time until his last day on July 1.

“I will be acting in the absence of the athletic director,” Richard said. “When [Staub’s] out, it gives us a point person for the athletic department and it gives Dr. Bruno a point person.”

Specifically, Richard identified fundraising and football season ticket sales as areas he will be focusing on.

Bruno did not attend the press conference, but said in his release that Richard was the logical choice as his schedule permits more time during the upcoming search process for a permanent athletic director.

Richard finished his 2013 recruiting class last week and cannot return to the recruiting trail for 2014 until mid July per NCAA rules.

“If it was in the middle of basketball season, I wouldn’t be up here. It’s about timing which is critical because there’s a lot to do,” Richard said.

A ULM alumnus and former basketball player, Richard said he was approached by Bruno on Tuesday about the position before taking the job on Thursday.

“I took a couple days to think about this thoroughly. As an alum, I want what’s best for this school,” Richard said.

Richard has spoken with all of ULM’s head coaches and said they are all ready to move forward.

“This is going to be an important hire for the university and the athletic department,” Richard said. “This person, whoever it may be, is going to lead us for years to come.”

The Warhawks (7-4) took four flights in a row to get the win over the Panthers (8-9). In the four position, Marcela Araya and Maria Garcia beat Alexis Elmurr and Molly Smestad 21-12, 21-13. Amy Grabiec and Michelle McNamee defeated Jansen Button and Sara Olivova 23-21, 21-18 in the two spot.

The third and fifth flights went to a third set, each decided in favor of the Warhawks. Kylie Parks and Blanca Ocana were victorious against Milani Pickering and Katelyn Rawls 17-21, 21-14, 15-9.Alannah Cullum and Iren Marinova picked up a 21-19, 21-23, 15-9 win over Karlee Kavanaugh and Alexis Townsend.

ULM’s only loss came in the one position when Tetiana Sukach and Zuzana Markova were bested by rivals Lane Carico and Katie Madewell. It was the third time this season that the two pairs faced each other, with “T & Z” winning two of the three matches.

In an exhibition flight held before match play began, Sarah Johnson and Danielle Lewis of ULM were defeated by Kaitlynn Hufstetler and Nikki Senopoulos 21-18, 21-10.

With the regular season behind them, the Warhawks turn their attention to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Sand Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala.

ULM sand volleyball qualified for the tournament as the sixth seed in just its first year of existence. The sixth seed places the Warhawks among the top three teams in the Southeast Region of the bracket.

By qualifying as a school, ULM places two pairs in the individual side of the tournament. Sukach and Markova and Grabiec and McNamee will compete for the Warhawks.

The six-team field also features top seed Pepperdine, Long Beach State, Florida State, USC and North Florida. Tournament play begins on May 3 and concludes on May 5.

Bobby Staub has resigned after nearly nine years as ULM’s athletic director.

The resignation goes into effect on July 1 at the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Staub told The News-Star on Tuesday afternoon that ULM President Nick Bruno informed him he has “decided to go in a different direction” with the athletic department.

Staub has been working without a contract since September 2011 when his previous deal expired. The athletic director serves in the president’s administrative council as an at-will employee.

In a statement released by the university, Bruno thanked Staub “for his nine years of service to ULM.”

Staub would not comment further on his resignation, but released a statement through ULM sports information thanking the “Warhawk family” and expressing his gratitude to the ULM coaches, staff and student athletes.

Bruno has yet to name an interim athletic director and no timetable has been offered on the process of hiring a replacement.

When reached for further comment, ULM director of media relations Laura Clark said Bruno will not make any more public statements until he has spoken with the university’s coaches and athletic department staff members.

Head football coach Todd Berry said he met with Bruno on Friday morning, but would not offer specifics on the meeting.

“I’m shocked and surprised. I didn’t have any feeling that this was going to happen. It seemed like everything was going well,” Berry said.

After spending the 2005 season at ULM as the offensive coordinator, Berry said one of the reasons he took the head-coaching job in 2010 was because of Staub’s presence.

Staub was named the 12th athletic director in ULM history in the summer of 2004 after spending 20 years in various capacities at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. July would have marked his ninth year overseeing Warhawk athletics.

ULM’s 8.3 million dollar athletic budget currently ranks last among FBS schools. Despite the financial constraints, ULM produced its best athletic season since joining the FBS level in 1994.

The football team captured its first winning season and bowl birth in 2012 with an 8-5 record.

ULM baseball won the 2012 Sun Belt conference tournament and advanced to its first NCAA regional in 12 years.

ULM joined the Sun Belt conference as a football member in 2001 while other sports followed during the 2006-07 academic year.

They go unnoticed by the people who roam these halls on a daily basis, but they tell a story.

A story of the days when fast breaks and full-court presses were the norm, and the roar of the student section took the roof off the building with every thunderous dunk.

Mike Vining, the man who wrote this story as ULM’s winningest basketball coach, looks up at them.

He says there used to be more banners—at least 10—but they’ve since been consolidated into five to save space.

“I had a player tell me once he didn’t think you could have enough banners. I guess you can,” Vining said, offering a glimpse of his trademark sense of humor.

He’s quick to tell a joke, but there was nothing funny about facing the Northeast Louisiana Indians in those days.

Through three different decades and NLU’s transformation into the ULM Warhawks, Vining’s teams amassed 401 wins, nine conference championships, seven NCAA tournament appearances and an NIT bid.

“We had some really good players. We went to the NCAA tournament four years in a row [from 1990-1993]. At the time that happened, there was only 14 schools in the nation who had ever done that,” Vining said.

The Blueprint

Vining shifts his gaze from the banners down to the wooden floor of  the coliseum. He looks comfortable, and given his longstanding connection to the university, it comes as no surprise.

Outside of two years in the Army, Vining has spent his entire life in the area. A native of nearby Goodwill, the coach came to ULM as a student in 1962. He played basketball for Lenny Fant, whose name adorns this building.

After a successful stint as the head coach at Bastrop High School, Vining was lured back to ULM in 1978. He apprenticed for three years, one under Fant and two with his successor Benny Hollis. When Hollis became the athletic director in 1981, it was Vining’s turn to take the reigns.

“Back then if you’d done a good job as an assistant they would promote you,” Vining said. “I got the job and Dr [Dwight] Vines was the president at the time. I was always trying to prove he made the right decision hiring me.”

Vining went to work, putting his own stamp on the program. He devised a system based on constant full court pressure and rotating players in every five minutes.

Fresh legs, combined with constant pressing over 40 minutes, frustrated opponents until they cracked under the weight of their own mistakes.

“In most instances, there’d be a five minute period where we’d have a big run. When the game was over, the other team would say, ‘except for those five minutes we could have beaten them.’ That was the press,” Vining said.

Vining also understood the most important tenet in all sports; you can never have enough athletes. His recruiting philosophy was exemplified by former ULM great Carlos Funchess, an in-betweener who could post up or step out and knock down a jump shot.

“I didn’t worry about where I was gonna play them, I let the other team worry about how they were going to guard us,” Vining said.

Vining had recruited most of the roster out of high school, making it an easy transition for the players.

“It wasn’t like a new coach coming in who didn’t know us,” former player and current ULM head coach Keith Richard said. “We knew him well, but we didn’t know him as the head coach.”

ULM won the conference in Vining’s first year, qualifying for its first ever NCAA tournament in the process. Six other NCAA bids would follow over his tenure.

The 1991 squad was arguably Vining’s best. They went 25-8 that season, featuring Funchess, the national slam dunk champion, guard Anthony “Greyhound” Jones, the dunk contest runner-up and point guard Casey Jones.

“All Casey had to do was throw the ball close to the rim and [Funchess and Jones] were going to dunk it. Everyday was a highlight reel,” Vining said.

Vining went toe-to-toe with some of the game’s best coaches—including Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olsen and Jerry Tarkanian—but ULM was never able to break through and win an NCAA tournament game.

“We came close but we just never could get that done,” Vining said.

After 24 years on the job, Vining retired from ULM in 2005, leaving a lasting legacy throughout the university and the city of Monroe. Of ULM’s 35 1,000 point scorers, 17 of them played for Vining.

Many of Vining’s former players have gotten into coaching, including his first point guard, who now works in his old office.

“Let’s Go Guard Somebody”

Keith Richard remembers it vividly. Everyday at practice before the start of defensive drills, Vining would grab a ball and say, “let’s go guard somebody.”

“I catch myself saying it now when we start our defensive work. Just like he used to do,” Richard said.

Since taking over as ULM’s head coach in 2010, Richard has relied on many of the lessons he learned from Vining both as a player and an assistant coach.

It hasn’t been easy. Crippling sanctions due to poor academics under the previous staff left the program with little resemblance to the one Richard remembered.

While it hasn’t always showed in the win-loss column, Vining believes hiring Richard is the best thing ULM could have done to get the program turned around.

“They took care of that. Now he’s taking care of the rest of it,” Vining said. “What we’ve got to do as a community and as alumni is support him through this rough period.”

With the sanctions lifted and academic issues fixed, ULM can recruit like a normal college basketball program again.

Finally, it’s time for Richard to write his own story. If Mike Vining has it his way, it’ll include more post-season and championship banners to go along with his own.

You can never have enough banners, right?

Sitting in tenth place following Monday’s opening two rounds, the Warhawks rebounded to shoot a 301 on the final 18 holes of the tournament to jump ahead three spots in the standings.

“The course was not playing easy. [The team] responded well even when it seemed like it was out of grasp. They fought as hard as they could and that’s all I can ask from them,” head coach Erik Hsu said.

Mason Seaborn led ULM with a fifth place finish on an overall score of 222 (+6). After shooting a 76 and a 75 during the first two rounds, Seaborn closed out the tournament with a 71, tied for the best scores of the day.

“I kept everything in play and didn’t really make any big numbers,” Seaborn said. “I was able to make a few birdies to cancel out the couple bogies I had.”

Greg Smail was the second-highest finisher for the Warhawks. The Scotland-native’s score of 232 (+16) tied him for 27th place.

“The weather today was a lot harder. The wind really picked up,” Smail said.

Mother nature was a factor during the final round. The wind made it difficult to shape shots and stay on the greens. Only three golfers turned in scores at even or below par on Tuesday.

“The wind really exaggerates what you’re doing and exposes your mistakes. A shot that would normally be 10 yards off the line is going to be 20 to 30 yards off in the wind,” Hsu said.

With the Sun Belt conference tournament on the horizon, Hsu used the Wallace Jones Invitational as an opportunity to evaluate the rest of his roster. He divided his team into two squads—Maroon and Gold—to see how they would respond in a tournament setting.

Cody Wells headlined the Gold team, shooting a career-low 74 in the final round to go with an overall score of 239 (+23).

Hsu said that Seaborn and Smail will fill the first two positions in the lineup, but the three, four and five spots are all up for grabs.

“This is the best evaluation I can get of these guys,” Hsu said. “It’s one thing playing on your home golf course during the week, but it’s different once you get out here in competition.”

The Sun Belt will host the conference championship tournament beginning on Monday, April 22. Tee time is set for 8 a.m.

ULM fell behind early and never recovered, losing 5-2 to FIU on Saturday at Warhawk Field.

The Warhawks (16-19, 3-7) quickly fell down 3-0 to the Panthers (23-19, 6-7) in the second inning before Elena DiMattia’s RBI ground out got ULM on the board.

ULM pulled within one run in the third inning, but would come no closer to closing the gap. FIU held the Warhawks scoreless for the rest of the game.

Stephanie Routzon went the whole game for ULM, giving up eight hits in seven innings pitched. As a team, the Warhawks recorded two hits.

GAME 2 – 7-2

FIU stayed hot at the plate to start the second contest, leading off with the game with a home run.

ULM quickly found themselves down 6-0 in the midpoint of the fourth inning. An RBI single by shortstop Summer Melancon scored ULM’s first run in the bottom of the fourth.

ULM didn’t get on the board again until. the sixth inning thanks to Janel Salanoa’s RBI single.

Haylie Wilson pitched all seven innings for the Warhawks, giving up three earned runs on eight hits. ULM recorded six hits, but struggled to score runners all game.

The Warhawks ran neck-and-neck with Oklahoma City in last year’s event, overcoming a one-stroke deficit to force a playoff. ULM fell short in the end, finishing runner-up to OKCU.

“Our guys are using last year as motivation. Hopefully we can take home some hardware this year,” head coach Erik Hsu said.

The second annual Wallace Jones Invitational begins Monday, April 8 at the Calvert Crossing Course at Southern Pines Golf Club in Calhoun, La.  Last year’s inaugural event was the first time ULM hosted a home golf tournament in seven years.

“Every golf course is different,” Hsu said. “To be able to play your home course is certainly an advantage. Our guys are comfortable there…the course is in great shape.”

Tournament-play consists of 54 holes broken up into three rounds. The field consists of 14 teams, up from last year’s field of 11.

Sophomores Mason Seaborn and Christian Tepley highlight ULM’s lineup card. Hsu said the team has a sense of pride in hosting this event and is looking forward to competing in front of its home supporters.

“They really want to play well. My only expectation is they take what they’ve learned from past events, put it to use and compete,” Hsu said.

The Wallace Jones Invitational tees off with a shotgun start beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday.

The field will play two rounds (36 holes) on Monday and one round (18) holes on Tuesday.

Fischer brings attitude and identity to ULM’s newest sport

“This is supposed to be funny, you guys.”

David Fischer shouts instructions during a drill he describes as “counterintuitive.” It’s designed to teach his sand volleyball team to read defenses on the fly and get them out of their comfort zone.

The objective is simple enough. If the defender goes one way, then the ball needs to go to that vacated area. It places the opponent in a bind, forcing them to make a split-second decision that hopefully leaves them with a mouthful of sand. When executed properly, the results are hilarious.

It’s not common to find a coach singing the praises of humor during the drills that make up the rigorous and mundane routine of practice. But if David Fischer is anything, it’s certainly not common.

In just over a month on the job, native Californian has put his own stamp on ULM’s newest school-sponsored sport, winning over his players in the process.

“He’s a lot of fun and is super positive,” senior Tetiana Sukach said. “We even have a drill called positive city. He tries to blend the mental aspect with the physical and I really like that.”

Fischer isn’t afraid to jump in the drill and mix it up either. He’s certainly qualified, given his background as a professional volleyball player. Even if he does find the term “professional” used loosely.

“Professional is such a strong word. Volleyball is only a professional sport for about 10 men’s and women’s teams in the U.S.,” Fischer said. “But I can travel at a break-even pace where I win enough gas money to make it to the next event. To me, playing tournaments and winning enough money to travel is a victory.”

So how does a volleyball nomad from Northern California find himself in Northeast Louisiana coaching the game he loves? With a little shared geography and a Facebook message.

The Bench And The Beach:

Fischer is a self-described “volleyball addict” with an insatiable appetite for the sport that began during his days at Santa Barbara High School in California.

“At my high school, there was a good choir and a good volleyball team,” Fischer said. “So I said all right, I’ll do both.”

The game took him to Stanford University in Palo Alto. Fischer jokes that he played the bench at Stanford, taking a back seat on a roster stocked full of future pro’s and Olympians.

“I saw the court for probably four points in league matches in my college career,” Fischer said.

He wasn’t done with volleyball after college either. Thanks to the exploits of some acquaintances from Santa Barbara High, Fischer decided to give sand volleyball a shot.

“I saw that some friends of mine from high school were making money playing beach [volleyball], so I thought I could try that.”

While it’s still volleyball, the intricacies of the sand game are far different from the indoor variety Fischer grew up with. He took to the game just fine, beginning his odyssey of setting and spiking all over the beaches of America.

But you can’t play forever. Luckily for Fischer, old age—at least in terms of athlete years—has coincided with the growth of collegiate sand volleyball. Like many athletes, he found the door to coaching open for him.

Fischer spent time as an assistant at UC-Santa Barbara and the head coach at Oxnard (Calif.) College before discovering the unlikely opening that led him halfway across the country.

Shortly after taking the head volleyball job at ULM, Patrick Hiltz realized he needed someone to take the reigns of the sand team while he focused on recruiting for the indoor squad.

Fischer saw an opportunity. He contacted Hiltz through Facebook, using those Santa Barbara connections one more time. Hiltz spent his high school days at San Marcos High, the crosstown rival of Fischer’s alma mater, Santa Barbara High.

Hiltz was looking for someone who could assist him with the indoor team while also bringing to the table expertise in the sand game. He feels he’s found that with Fischer.

“Sand volleyball is a different sport than indoor,” Hiltz said. “It’s still volleyball, but there are some subtle nuances that need to be addressed to take a good sand volleyball team and make it an elite sand volleyball team. I think David gives us an opportunity to make that jump,” Hiltz said.

The Bag Around the Goldfish:

After jumping in to participate in his own intricately designed drill, Fischer finds himself as the defender with the mouthful of sand.

Undeterred, the coach dusts himself off and rejoins the action. His team has done the same over the course of this first season.

After starting out 1-3, the Warhawks are riding the crest of a three-match winning streak that has them at 4-3 at the season’s midway point.  They aren’t elite yet, but it’s fair to say Fischer has them headed in the right direction.

“This group is exactly what I hoped they would be. I knew some already saw themselves as beach players, and some would be new to the sand game and would need to learn a lot in a hurry, Fischer said. “What I’m happy to find out is that this team is full of wicked-smart student-athletes.”

Fischer’s squad is comprised of players from every walk of life imaginable. From Ohio all the way to South America and Europe. Fischer can identify with the diversity. He too is a fish out of water. And loves every minute of it.

“I’m expecting and waiting for an extreme culture shock,” Fischer said. “Coach Hiltz is a Santa Barbara guy, my team is from everywhere in the world. They’re like the plastic bag around the goldfish that keeps me insulated from the aquarium.”

A roster of American and international players coached by a Californian in the heart of the Bible Belt looks on the surface about as counterintuitive as it gets.

But look closer. Below the surface. Beneath the grains of sand that fill the volleyball court. It works. The volleyball nomad from Santa Barbara has found a home in his plastic bag.

When two people spend as much time together as Sukach and her partner-in-crime Zuzana Markova, the comparison is inevitable.

“Of course we have misunderstandings but I really like that she’s my partner,” Sukach said. “We have the same goals.”

Together, they form the duo known as “T & Z” around ULM’s sand volleyball courts. And they’ve been making quite the name for themselves in just their second season playing together.

In August, Sukach and Markova captured the National Collegiate Sand Volleyball Association (NCSVA) National Tournament championship, defeating teams from all over the country.

Almost midway through ULM’s inaugural sand volleyball season, the pair stands at 7-0 in match play.

Sukach and Markova first crossed paths in Europe in 2007 with no clue what the future had in store for them.

The two met at the Under-19 Volleyball championships in Poland, where Sukach represented the Ukraine and Markova the Czech Republic. A few years and several thousand miles later, “T & Z” was born.

They may call different countries home, but it’s a shared competitive fire that makes “T & Z” such a formidable tandem.

“We both hate losing. It’s our drive that makes us work so well together,” Markova said.

That drive has also made the head coach’s job easier. Head coach David Fischer views Sukach and Markova more as colleagues than players and he can count on them to bring their best effort every day.

“Their intensity is contagious…in case you can’t tell, I’m really happy they’re on our side of the net,” Fischer said.

With eight matches—including two tournaments—left on the schedule, Sukach and Markova are gearing up for the AVCA National Tournament in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Winning is always the goal with these two. But that hasn’t stopped them from relishing the chance to be a part of history as members of ULM’s first sand volleyball team. Something neither one of them will take for granted.

“I’ve played sand [volleyball] all my life,” Sukach said. “I came here for the indoor team but I love sand volleyball. This is like my dream come true to have this program.”

Looking for a way to promote Warhawk athletics, ULM came up with the concept of hosting a weekend event centered around the Maroon and Gold spring football game.

Thus, Super Warhawk Weekend was born, a one-stop-shop for all things ULM sports. In the five years since its inception, it’s become one of the biggest events on campus.

“This is one event we hold on campus that our fans and alums circle on their calendar to attend,” athletics director Bobby Staub said. “It’s caught on and gotten better every year.”

The event takes place March 22-24 and includes a plethora of activities, kicking off that Friday as ULM baseball begins a three-game series with Troy at 6 p.m.

Saturday’s marquee events include the La’Louisianne Crawfish Boil from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., the Maroon and Gold game at 1 p.m., Warhawk baseball at 4 p.m. and the NPHC Greek Step Show at Fant-Ewing Coliseum at 6 p.m.

Following the Maroon and Gold game, ULM football players will be signing autographs at 2:30 p.m. in the north end zone of Malone Stadium.

The event concludes on Sunday with ULM’s final baseball game against Troy.

All activities can be attended free of charge except the baseball games and the crawfish boil.

Baseball tickets are available starting at $10 for adults and $5 for youth.  ULM students get in free with ULM ID.

The cost to attend the crawfish boil is $25 per person.

“We see this thing continuing to grow,” Staub said. “I anticipate us having a great turnout.”