INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA has invited 19 coaches to its 2009 NCAA Expert Coaches Football Academy, in an effort to assist coaches with career advancement, networking and exposure opportunities due to the current low number of minority head football coaches at NCAA colleges and universities.  

    The Academy is being held June 18-20 in Orlando, Florida, in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention.

    The Expert Coaches Academy is an NCAA program that addresses the critical shortage of ethnic minorities in head coaching positions in the sport of college football, primarily at the Division I level.  Though the NCAA National Office does not have hiring authority over its member colleges and universities, the office is able to provide programming that better prepares coaches for many of the issues they will experience at the head coaching level through program sessions and networking opportunities with current head coaches and athletics administrators.   The participants have expressed an interest in being a head coach at an NCAA college or university within their current division or in another NCAA division.

Programming covers:

• Communications - media, booster relations, interviewing skills, and building a portfolio.
• Fiscal Responsibilities - fundraising, budgeting and development
• Building a Successful Program - managing coaching staffs, building a portfolio (game strategy), maintaining relationships with university/college presidents, athletic directors, alumni, student-athletes, faculty and members of the community 
• Compliance Considerations - gambling issues, NCAA rules and regulations/infractions, agents, choices/consequences, and integrity
• Academic Issues - academic support, academic fraud, retention, NCAA rules and regulations, academic success

    Of the current 119 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) head football coaches, seven are African-American, one is a Pacific Islander, and one is Latino.  Out of a total of 582 football programs in Division I, II and III, only 3.9 percent are coaches of color, excluding the historically black coaches and universities. 

    The coaches selected for the 2009 Expert Coaches Academy are:

    Olabaniji Abanishe, head football coach, Lincoln University (PA)

    Robert Anae, offensive coordinator, Brigham Young University

    Kurt Barber, defensive coordinator, Kentucky State University

    Corey Batoon, assistant head coach/defensive coordinator, Northern Arizona University

    Chennis Berry, offensive coordinator/o-line coach, North Carolina A&T University

    Nigel Burton, defensive coordinator, University of Nevada

    Stephon Healey, associate head coach, Bridgewater College

    Eric Jackson, defensive backs coach, Princeton University

    Shannon Jackson, defensive coordinator, Indiana State University

    James Joe, assistant head football coach, Miles College

    Michael Morand, co-offensive coordinator, North Carolina A&T University

    Herbert Parham, assistant head coach/defensive coordinator, Morgan State University

    Cedric Pearl, offensive coordinator, Alabama A&M University

    Darrell Perkins, defensive backs/recruiting coordinator, University of Louisiana at Monroe

    Frederick Reed, defensive coordinator, University of Buffalo

    Payam Saadat, co-defensive coordinator, United States Military Academy

    Chris Vaughn, recruiting coordinator/defensive assistant, University of Mississippi

    Alexander Wood, defensive coordinator, Wayne State University

    Sherman Wood, head football coach, Salisbury University

    In addition to the Expert Coaches Academy, the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion group also directs the Future Coaches Academy for student-athletes, the Football Coaches Academy (less than eight years of experience) and the top tier most recently added program--the Champions Forum, which links participants from past Expert Coaches Academies with NCAA athletics directors who have hiring power and networks with other athletics directors.   Since the NCAA created its Coaching Academies in 2004, five of the eight minority football coaches who have been hired in head coaching positions at NCAA colleges and universities participated in the NCAA coaching academy programs.