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For Immediate Release: 10/31/07
Contact: Annette Barnette
Public Relations & Marketing Director
����ֱ�� State College
(304) 462-4115 or (304) 904-2044

����ֱ��, WV – ����ֱ�� State College officials have announced changes in the coaching staff for the Lady Pioneers for the upcoming

season. GSC President Dr. Peter Barr says longtime Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach Dennis Fitzpatrick has been named Head Coach of the team. “I am confident in his coaching abilities to lead the team this season. He knows the players, the conference, the other coaches, the facilities, and the NCAA rules and regulations,” said Barr.

This announcement comes after GSC Head Women’s Basketball Coach Tracy Wyatt Raban submitted her resignation earlier this month. Fitzpatrick say he’s ready to take on the challenge. “I have very big shoes to fill with the success of the program in recent years, but this is a new beginning for the program. We have twelve young ladies who are working extremely hard to live up to the reputation the Lady Pioneer basketball team has built, and I expect us to be very competitive,” said Fitzpatrick, who helped coach the Lady Pioneers to the NCAA Division II East Region Championship title this past season, which included a trip to the Elite 8 Tournament in Kearney, Nebraska in March.

Barr also announced Fitzpatrick now has two outstanding assistant coaches. Fitzpatrick said, “I am very fortunate to have Rachel Redick and Jerod Alltop assisting me with the team. Rachel has a great passion for the game of basketball. She played with that passion and has exhibited it as a coach as well. Jerod returns to the Lady Pioneers Program with knowledge of the GSC

program and the WVIAC. He will make a very good coach and be a great asset to the team.”

Alltop said, “I have known and worked with Coach Fitzpatrick and Rachel Redick and feel fortunate to be able to team up with these two talented individuals. It is great to get the opportunity to come back and coach at my alma mater. I am excited to get the chance to help keep the Lady Pioneer program as one of the elite programs in the country."

Redick said, “It’s a big honor to be an assistant coach after playing on the team for four years. I care very deeply about the team and everyone associated with it. We will try our best to uphold the highest standards for it.”

Barr says leading the Lady Pioneers team during the upcoming season will be Fitzpatrick’s primary focus even though he is serving as GSC’s Interim Athletic Director. Fitzpatrick was born and raised in the Harrison County community of Stonewood, but he has lived in Gilmer County for the last 37 years. He’s worked at ����ֱ�� State College for eleven years. Prior to working at GSC, he was the Assistant Boys Basketball Coach at Gilmer County High School for two years where he helped take that team to the state tournament both years. His career also includes time spent as an Assistant Girls Basketball Coach at Lewis County High School and as a former Lewis County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director.

Alltop is a 2006 ����ֱ�� State College business management graduate who worked as a student assistant with the Lady Pioneers four

years. He is currently working on his master’s degree in sports management at Marshall University, where he was the graduate assistant with the Thundering Herd women’s basketball team. He is the son of Beth and Hugh Alltop of Calhoun County.

Redick is a GSC senior majoring in education and had been the team’s student assistant. The former Lady Pioneer led her team to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight after going 18-0 in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and winning the East Regional Championship this past season. The Franklin, Pennsylvania native was named the Most Valuable Player of the WVIAC, the conference tournament and the East Regional Tournament. She was named a WBCA/Kodak First Team All-American last season as well. She is the daughter of Dean and Sharon Redick.

The first GSC women’s basketball game of the new season will be on November 15th at 7:00 p.m. against West Virginia State during their tournament in Institute.