Retired Dean Cobb to Chair UMaine Basketball Search
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Robert Cobb, retired dean of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, will chair the seven-member committee leading the search for UMaine’s next women’s basketball coach.
“Bob is a leader of unquestioned integrity and commitment who truly appreciates the important role of intercollegiate athletics within an academic community,” says Black Bear Athletic Director Steve Abbott. “I am pleased and thankful that he is willing to take on this important responsibility.”
Cobb retired in 2007 after 38 years of service to the university, including 30 as dean. He is a former college athlete who starred on the Springfield College football team as an undergraduate.
In addition to Cobb, the members of the search committee are:
– Scott Atherley, women’s soccer coach
– Josette Babineau, field hockey coach
– Emily Ellis, Black Bear Hall of Fame basketball player from UMaine’s Class of 1985
– Evie Smith, UMaine Class of 1959 and a member of the Black Bear Board of Advisers
– Prof. Robert Strong, UMaine NCAA Faculty Representative
– Prof. David Townsend, chair of UMaine’s Athletic Advisory Board and a member of the Class of 1974
Abbott also notes that the three women’s basketball team members who will be seniors next year — Samantha Baranowski, Samantha Wheeler and Brittany Williams — will serve as team liaisons to the committee. They will be actively involved in shaping the search and completing the process.
“This is a terrific committee representing linkages to the women’s basketball program’s great traditions, to our academic community and to the Black Bear athletic department,” Abbott says. “We all have high expectations as we launch a national search to find the coach who will lead this program and its student-athletes to fulfill our high expectations in the classroom, on the court and in the community.”
The process should take four to eight weeks from the time the job is posted, according to Abbott.
The job became vacant on Tuesday March 29 when UMaine dismissed Cindy Blodgett after four seasons as coach.