Ohio State excellence is not exclusive to the football field or the basketball court. Around the Oval is our way of keeping you informed of the amazing things happening with the other 34 varsity sports on campus.
The Ohio State athletic department is teeming with top coaching talent. Urban Meyer (Football), Tom Ryan (Wrestling), and Andy Teitelbaum (Rowing) are arguably the best head coaches in the country, and coaches like Thad Matta (Men's Basketball), Ty Tucker (Men's Tennis), Kevin McGuff (Women's Basketball) and Nick Myers (Men's Lacrosse) have led their teams to national prominence.
This year, the rich get a little bit richer.
The Ohio State athletic program will be adding three stellar head coaches for the upcoming 2015-16 season. They will take the reigns of the women's hockey team, the men's golf team, and two-time defending national champion pistol team.
Here's a little about each one and how they'll impact their new team.
Jenny Potter: Women's hockey
This season, Jenny Potter will become the third coach in the history of the Ohio State women's hockey program. She takes over a Buckeye team that went 17-16 last season, ending their season with a triple overtime loss to North Dakota in the conference quarterfinals.
Potter had quite an impressive playing career. From an Ohio State release:
Potter, a longtime player and contributor for the United States national team, began making a name for herself on the international stage as a player in the first Olympic women's hockey tournament. Registered as the second-youngest player on Team USA, she helped guide the United States to a gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games. Potter went on to skate in three more Olympic Games following her winning introduction, claiming silver medals in 2002 and 2010 and a bronze medal in 2006.
A veteran for Team USA at the 2010 Olympic Games, Potter was appointed as the team's captain and athlete director. En route to a silver medal finish in 2010, she led the U.S. in scoring, became the first Olympic player to net hat tricks in back-to-back games and set a U.S. single-game record with five points.
In addition to her Olympic appearances, Potter helped Team USA win World Championship titles in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2011. In all, she competed in eight IIHF World Championships and seven Four Nations Cups. Potter was also named the Player of the Year for Canada's Western Women's Hockey League in 2009.
Her experience as a player is unparalleled, but she is relatively new to coaching. However, a lack of experience does not always equal a lack success. Potter coached just two season at Trinity College, and in her second season she led the team to their first ever conference championship and second ever NCAA tournament appearance.
Of course there is a higher level of competition at Ohio State, but perhaps a former player — and quite a decorated one at that — is what this program needs to push it to national prominence.
Jay Moseley: Men's Golf
After Head Coach Donnie Darr's resignation in June, Jay Moseley will take over this season as the head coach of the Ohio State men's golf team. He becomes the 11th head coach in program history.
Moseley spent the past six seasons as the head coach at Kennesaw State in Georgia, where he had unprecedented success. From an Ohio State release:
During the last six years, Moseley lifted Kennesaw State University to new heights unreached prior to his arrival. Moseley guided the Owls to five consecutive NCAA Regional appearances and a pair of trips to the NCAA Championships. Taking over a program which had never advanced to postseason play, Moseley steered the Owls to the 2011 NCAA Championships in just his second season at the helm.
Moseley added another program `first' this past season, guiding Kennesaw State into the GCAA Top-25 Poll for the first time ever and concluded the year ranked No. 27 nationally. The team's ascension into the national Top-25 came on the strength of tournament titles at the Rees Jones Invitational (Sept. 21-23) and Pinetree Intercollegiate (Oct. 20-21) accompanied by second-place showings at the Jones Invitational (Feb. 23-24) and the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships (Apr. 19-21). In total, Moseley's teams captured 13 tournament crowns during his time in Georgia.
Moseley's charges finished in the top-30 nationally in 2011 and 2014, placing 26th at both NCAA Championships. The 2014 Owls claimed runner-up honors at the NCAA Auburn Regional to earn their spot in the nation's final 30 teams vying for a national title. Moseley's first campaign at Kennesaw State also included participation in NCAA action as then-sophomore Jeff Karlsson qualified for the 2010 NCAA Southeast Regional as an individual.
Jay Moseley is a home-run hire for this program. He is a young, talented coach ready to lead a big-time program to national prominence. With his proven ability as a recruiter coupled with Ohio State's resources, expect Ohio State to establish themselves as national competitors in the coming years.
Donna Knisley: Pistol
This Ohio State pistol team has won back-to-back national titles, and they'll look to three-peat this upcoming season. However, they'll have to do it with a new head coach after Jim Sweeney retired at the end of last season.
What's going to change? Not much. Taking over for Sweeney is Donna Knisley, who is quite familiar to both the team and the retiring head coach. She has served as an assistant coach for 15 years, and is currently engaged to the retiring Jim Sweeney.
From an Ohio State release, she had this to say:
"After 15 wonderful years of helping to guide the Ohio State pistol team as the assistant coach, I am thrilled beyond words to be appointed to the next level as the head coach," Knisley said. "I will attempt to maintain the high standards already set, as well as provide even more opportunities for development of our student-athletes.
"I'm looking forward to working with the administration and various support services provided for our student-athlete success in the classroom and on the range," Knisley continued. "I am grateful to inherit a program that has been treated by our administration as a mainstream collegiate sport and hope to be part of the ongoing legacy of the Ohio State pistol team."
There's no doubt that Knisley can win — she's been on staff for all six of Ohio State's national titles, and was a state champion herself in 1993.
What she brings to the table is familiarity to a program that already knows how to win — they aren't going to try to fix what isn't broken. The Buckeyes are the two-time defending national champions with her as an assistant and are favorites to win it again next year with her at the helm.
These three coaches were the best possible candidates for the job, and credit is due to Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith for bringing them aboard. Under his leadership, the Ohio State athletic department has become one of the best, if not the best athletic program in the country. He's brought Ohio State to the top, and with these three hires it's clear he intends to keep them there.
