Coach of the Year

Mark Whipple
Massachusetts

This is the one people will be talking about for a long time, the gophers-to-governors turnaround of the Massachusetts Minutemen under first-year man Mark Whipple.

Whipple simply took a 2-9 team from 1997, installed his schemes, recruited a quarterback and some other key components, entered the national playoffs as the No. 11 seed with three losses, and won out&-beating three (McNeese State, No. 6, 21-19; Northwestern State, No. 2, 41-31, and Georgia Southern, No. 1, 55-43) of the top six seeds in the process (UMass beat 13-seed Lehigh 27-21 in the second round).

Offense carried the day during the season, but a balance of control and defense provided a winning formula in the playoffs. In the final thriller against Georgia Southern, UMass not only set a record for championship game scoring, but forced the Eagles into six fumbles lost and an interception. More importantly, the Minutemen converting the turnovers into 31 points.

The new-found football supremacy at UMass has been well received at hungry UMass, which is eyeing a move to Division I. Previously, the only national championships at the school had been won by the women's lacrosse (1982) and gymnastics teams (1973), and the Minutemen's four football postseason wins were more than had been won in the program's 115-year history (for more about UMass football, see the Mark Whipple feature in this issue).

Division II
Coach of the Year

Mel Tjeerdsma
Northwest Missouri

There is a new monster on the midway of Division II football. This new demon, Mel Tjeerdsma's Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, roared loud and long in 1998.

Tjeerdsma's Bearcats became the first-ever team in Division II history to go 15-0, and they did it by headlining with an offensive attack led by quarterback Chris Greisen. Greisen completed 60 percent of his passes for for 2937 yards and 25 touchdowns (14 interceptions) during the regular season, as Northwest Missouri rang up 482.4 yards per game and led the nation in scoring by posting 46.4 points per contest. Including the playoffs, the Bearcats eclipsed 40 points nine times, including a 69-33 regular season finale against Emporia State.

Northwest Missouri State ran past challengers in the playoffs, including a 42-17 defeat of two-time defending champion Northern Colorado in the quarterfinals. UNC had provided an end to Northwest's championship hopes two previous seasons in a row.

But 1998 proved to be the capping of a long journey for Tjeerdsma, who went 0-11 in 1994, his first year rebuilding the program. They've done all the right things, from recruiting freshmen to getting good students. Twenty-three players made the conference academic honor roll, and seven of Tjeerdsma's original redshirt class from 1994 were among the proud seniors when NMSU brought home the NCAA Division II championship hardware with a 24-6 victory over Carson-Newman.

Division III
Coach of the Year

Steve Mohr
Trinity (Texas) University

It is not very often that losing the last game of the season will earn you a coach of the year award. But when that loss is a narrow one (34-29) in the national championship contest, at the hands of the three-time national champion Mount Union College, the loss is more than enough to prove Trinity University's Steve Mohr a worthy NCAA Division III coach of the year.

In 1998, the Trinity Tigers were truly one of the nation's most dominant teams, rolling through the regular season undefeated and winning their first two playoff games handily over Western Maryland and Lycoming. All the while outscoring opponents by more than two-to-one (38.2 to 15.3) and virtually doubling their foes offensive production (433.4 ypg to 232.8 ypg), Trinity had a stifling defense which held rivals to less than 54 yards rushing per game. During the regular season, so dominant was Trinity they posted an average margin a victory of more than four touchdowns per game (28.4).

The mastery that the Tigers showed in 1998 was simply a continuation of the machine that Mohr has built at the San Antonio school. In his nine years at the helm, Mohr has lead the Tigers to six consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles; winning almost 61 percent of his games, (posting undefeated regular seasons in 1994, 1997 and 1998) and earning three-straight NCAA playoff appearances.

NAIA
Coach of the Year

Vic Shealy
Azusa Pacific

For every victory, there is a price to be paid. In 1998, Azusa Pacific earned 12 of them (against two losses) and a first-ever NAIA national championship, coming from behind to post a 17-14 victory over traditional powerhouse Olivet Nazarene University.

But, that championship came with a high price tag for the APU Cougars. Shortly after the season was over, head coach Vic Shealy became the object of desire by the "big boys" and was hired by Fisher DeBerry to coach defensive backs at the Air Force Academy.

Shealy was the architect of a great construction job at Azusa Pacific, going 27-14-1 (.655) in four years, leading the team to its first post-season appearance in the 34-year history of the program. The decision to leave Azusa Pacific was not an easy one for the 37 year-old son of Dal Shealy, a long-time college coach at places like Richmond, Baylor, Iowa State, Tennessee and Auburn, and current head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Vic Shealy has been around the game of football from the day he was born and he knows first-hand how hard it is to win a title.

In the course of their title run, the Vic Shealy-led Cougars broke or tied 10 school records and won their last 10 consecutive games. It's fair to say that Azusa Pacific will miss him.