SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Wittenberg University Director of Athletics and Recreation Garnett Purnell has never been one to back away from a challenge. Small wonder then that Purnell has decided to step into the breach and take over the Tiger men's golf program for the 2004 season, one of several coaching changes afoot in the Department of Athletics.

Purnell replaces Scott Isphording, who resigned as head men's golf coach and assistant football coach in December after six years on the staff. Isphording, who served as the football team's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, took the quarterbacks coach position at Eastern Michigan University. Isphording led the Tiger golf team to a fifth-place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference in 2003, his only full season at the helm, and a winning record in head-to-head competition for the first time in five years.

The head coaching position is the first such assignment in Purnell's nearly five years at Wittenberg. In his career, which includes stops at the Central State University, the University of Cincinnati and Morgan State University, Purnell has experience coaching football and basketball in the role of assistant. After arriving at Wittenberg in 1999, Purnell also filled in as an assistant coach with the field hockey team.

Purnell will be assisted in 2004 by former Tiger golf standout Jim Kincaid, a four-year letterwinner from 1981-84. Now the owner of Korporate Kasual, a local company that produces corporate recognition apparel, Kincaid was team captain and most valuable player following his senior year in 1984.

In addition, Scott Benzel has been hired to replace defensive backs coach Mark Henninger after two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Robert Morris University. Henninger, who also served as an assistant coach in the Tiger baseball program, left his alma mater in December after four seasons to accept the defensive coordinator position at North Carolina Wesleyan University.

Benzel will also work as an assistant coach with the men's and women's track and field program.

Benzel coached defensive backs at Robert Morris in the 2002 and 2003 seasons, and he was involved in recruiting, game planning, scouting opponents and coordinating academic programs. In 2002, Robert Morris ranked first in the nation in NCAA Division I-AA in pass defense and seventh overall in total defense. Benzel was a two-year starter at Mercyhurst College and was named Defensive Most Valuable Player in 1996 as a senior. He earned a bachelor's degree from Mercyhurst and a master's from Robert Morris.

The Tiger baseball program is affected as well, with Rick Gold, Bill Colopy, Lance Dill and Ryan Born joining the coaching staff to replace Henninger and pitching coach Mike DeMassimo. Gold joins the program as an assistant coach after 31 years as a high school and American Legion head coach. He will focus primarily on team defense and pitching. Colopy will serve as a volunteer assistant coach, working primarily with middle infielders. Dill, an All-North Coast Athletic Conference and All-Mideast Region outfielder for the Tigers in 2002, is joining the staff as a volunteer assistant coach, working primarily with outfielders. Born, an All-NCAC and All-Mideast Region first baseman in 2003, is returning to the program this spring as a student assistant coach, working primarily with the first baseman.

A separate announcement on the baseball staff changes was released on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

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