OVCExtra Podcast ovcsports.com

OVC Hall of Famer Dave Loos, former Austin Peay coach, is the winningest men's basketball coach in OVC history.



Loos, a four-time OVC Coach of the Year, was the Govs head coach from 1990 through 2017 and finished his career with 421 victories, including 257 in league play. Overall he won 502 games as a college head coach. Loos also served as the APSU Director of Athletics from 1997 through 2013.



He was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 2018.

This is part two of the conversation with Ron English, who was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 2011, is a former OVC associate commissioner who now serves as the Director of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.



Ron served the OVC for 15 years (1992-2007) and at one time he was the longest tenured staff member in OVC history. He held virtually every job in the office including working with tournament operations, scheduling for men's and women's team sports, finances, marketing and media relations, in addition to becoming the league's first-ever compliance officer, a brief tenure as the OVC's supervisor of men's basketball officials, and serving as interim commissioner.



To hear part one, check out Episode No. 47.

Ron English, who was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 2011, is a former OVC associate commissioner who now serves as the Director of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.



Ron served the OVC for 15 years (1992-2007) and at one time he was the longest tenured staff member in OVC history. He held virtually every job in the office including working with tournament operations, scheduling for men's and women's team sports, finances, marketing and media relations, in addition to becoming the league's first-ever compliance officer, a brief tenure as the OVC's supervisor of men's basketball officials, and serving as interim commissioner.

 

Jerry Carpenter has been associated with UT Martin for nearly 60 years, first as a student, then manager of the campus bookstore, then later then head men's golf coach and now in retirement, volunteer assistant golf coach. He has also worked on the football chain gang and basketball table crew, in addition to officiating football and basketball games at both the high school and collegiate levels.



As UTM golf coach, he was named OVC Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2016 and led the Skyhawks to its first OVC Golf Championship in 2016. The Skyhawks have since won two other titles, with him in the volunteer role.

Dr. Jon Steinbrecher served as the Commissioner of the OVC from 2003-09 before moving to the Mid-American Conference. At the OVC he negotiated a television deal that included putting the first basketball games on ESPNU (the first league to do so), helped the OVC secure the hosting rights to the 2014 Women's Final Four and put an emphasis on sportsmanship.



He also served nine years (1994-2003) as the commissioner of the Mid-Continent Conference (the Summit League), making him the only person to serve as commissioner in all three NCAA Division I Subdivisions (FBS, FCS, DI).



Steinbrecher was a former two sport student-athlete at Valparaiso University.





 

Van is in her 35th year as head volleyball coach at Little Rock and has won more than 600 career matches, which ranks 15th nationally among Division I head coaches. She also spent two years as the women's basketball coach for the Trojans.



Prior to Little Rock joining the OVC, she led the Trojans to four regular season Sun Belt Conference championships, five tournament championships, six postseason appearances and five appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including advancing to the Second Round in 2014. That 2014 team finished the year 30-5 and upset No. 16 national seed Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. Those accolades earned her the title "Queen of the Sun Belt."



The 2022 season marks the first for Little Rock as members of the OVC.