On Wednesday afternoon, Bethune-Cookman Director of Athletics, Lynn W. Thompson, and Women's Basketball Head Coach Vanessa Inge officially announced the appointment of Mark Zacher as the Associate Head Coach for the Women's Basketball program.
Mark Zacher comes to B-CU after serving 10 years as an Assistant Coach at Mount St. Mary's, most recently under Head Coach Bryan Whitten, and previously under present B-CU coach Vanessa (then Blair) Inge. Zacher is a seasoned veteran with excellent experience in scouting, preparing workouts, and recruiting. Additionally, Zacher has written coaching articles that have appeared in numerous basketball journals.
Zacher joined the Mount St. Mary's coaching staff prior to the 1999-2000 season. Before becoming a full-time assistant coach, he worked with the women's basketball team on a volunteer basis during the 1998-99 season, preparing scouting reports on all opponents and playbooks for the squad. Zacher was recognized as an important part of Vanessa Inge's staff at MSM since her first season with the Mount, assisting her in winning two regular season Northeast Conference championships.
Wildcat Coaches and fans look forward to the same kind of success for Bethune-Cookman that their previous work produced for Mount St. Mary's. I am excited to hire Mark Zacher as my Associate Head coach," says Coach Inge, "he and I share ten years of working together at our previous institution. He is a colleague, friend, and a person with whom I have a tremendous amount of trust and respect. He has a wealth of basketball knowledge and experience. His hunger and passion for teaching the game to young women is just what this program needs. I know that he will do an incredible job helping to turn our Lady Cats program around."
A 1980 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Zacher has been involved with coaching girl's basketball since 1989. He was an assistant coach at Williams Valley Junior-Senior High School in Tower City, Pa., for three seasons. Zacher moved on to become interim Head Coach of the girls' varsity squad at Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill, Pa., for two years, before taking the Varsity Head Coach job at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa., in 1995.
Zacher was the director of the boys' basketball spring and summer league at Catoctin High School in Thurmont, Md. From 1991-1995, and was also the executive director and coach of the Anthracite Action A.A.U. club team in Pottsville, Pa.
"I am extremely honored to join the women's basketball program and the campus community at Bethune-Cookman University," said Zacher, "it is my pleasure to rejoin Coach Vanessa Inge on her staff, as I had the pleasure of working with her for nine previous seasons. We both share a great passion for the game and a desire to build this program into the very finest both on and off of the basketball court."
With the coaching staff fully in place, B-CU Women's Basketball gears up for the exhibition opener against Edward Waters, Friday Nov. 7, at the HBCU Pre-Season Challenge in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
*Some information provided by Mount St. Mary's Sports Information.