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Early promotion for Godwin
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EXCLUSIVE:
Listen
to the interview Bonesville.net's Brian Bailey
conducted Friday evening with East Carolina's newly- appointed baseball coach, Billy Godwin. |
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From staff, ECU and wire reports
Billy Godwin has been formally elevated to head coach of the
East Carolina baseball program little more than two weeks after being called
on to pinch-hit in the position.
The move, announced late
Friday afternoon by ECU athletic director Terry Holland, makes Godwin the
10th coach in the school's storied baseball history.
A Rocky Mount native with an
ECU graduate degree, Godwin
was hired as the Pirates' pitching coach in
June after compiling a 262-85 in six years at junior college powerhouse
Louisburg. During his tenure with the Hurricanes, he led the team to
multiple postseason appearances, including a trip to the 2002 JUCO World
Series.
Godwin was named on Oct. 10
to serve as acting head coach of the
Pirates for the balance of the 2005-06 academic year after
the school suspended Randy Mazey, ECU's
coach the last three seasons.
At the time of Mazey's
suspension, Holland indicated that ECU would conduct a national search for
a replacement. But Holland noted Friday he was impressed with Godwin's
leadership of the program since becoming the interim coach.
``This announcement will end
speculation that could become a distraction as our team and coaches build a
foundation for the journey to the College World Series,'' Holland said in a
prepared statement.
``It is time to stabilize our
program by allowing Coach Godwin to hire a permanent staff for our
outstanding current players and so that our recruits will know who their
coaches will be when they arrive on our campus.''
Godwin's official appointment
to the fulltime job has already been approved by the ECU board of trustees, the
school said in a release.
In a sign that he has already
begun exerting his influence on the future direction of the team, Godwin
said in a Friday evening interview with Bonesville.net's Brian Bailey that
he had received the 11th verbal commitment to the Pirates' recruiting class
of 2006 earlier in the day. (Replay
Bailey's interview with Godwin.)
The school suspended Mazey for
unspecified reasons earlier this month. It was a move that was expected to
be the first procedural step toward his eventual firing.
Mazey's ouster came only
months after the conclusion of the Pirates' 2005 season was marked by the
exodus of assistant coaches Tommy Eason and
Alan Osborne and the transfer of slugger Ryan Peisel, a promising rising
sophomore, to Georgia.
Sources indicated at the time the departures were
prompted by conflicts with Mazey. The result, sources say, was scrutiny of Mazey's coaching style by Holland.
Mazey was 120-66-1 with the
Pirates — 60-30 in Conference USA — and reached an NCAA regional in each of
his three seasons.
Mazey succeeded
ECU Hall of Famer Keith LeClair, who led
the team to four consecutive NCAA berths before stepping down at the end of
the 2002 season after being stricken with ALS, also know as Lou Gehrig's
Disease.
©2005
Bonesville.net. All rights rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. An
ECU Athletics release and an Associated Press dispatch
contributed to the compilation of this report.
02/23/2007 11:21:47 AM
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