The Lions basketball staff had to be readjusted after the depature of former assistant coaches Kyle Roane and Errol Gauff. Head Coach Jay Ladner has hired Joey Stiebing, Odell Witherspoon III and David Kiefer to be assistant coaches for this upcoming season.
Courtesy of Sports Info

Lions mens basketball Head Coach Jay Ladner has made changes and adjustments to his coaching staff for the upcoming season. Coaches David Kiefer, Joey Stiebing and Odell Witherspoon III have been added to the coaching staff this season to replace the former assistant coaches Kyle Roane and new womens basketball Head Coach Errol Gauff.

“I’m really excited about it,” said Ladner. “The quality of the coaches that we are able to have on board. I’m personally always looking for talented, skilled coaches that can help get our basketball program here at Southeastern to where we want it which is competing on a national level.”

Roane is now the director of basketball operations at Southern Mississippi. Coach Ladner is proud to see his former assistants land higher coaching positions.

“Kyle Roane was with me from day one here,” said Ladner. “I certainly don’t in any way disparage him for leaving, I understood. I think it’s always a compliment when other schools, particularly larger schools hire your assistants. That means you’ve done a good job of assembling the staff.”

Stiebing was promoted to assistant coach after previously being the special assistant to Coach Ladner last year. Stiebing has coached at every level: high school, college, professional and international. Before coming to the Lions, he coached the Al-Sharjah Basketball Club in Sharjah United Arab Emirates.

“The first hire that we made was coach Joey Stiebing,” said Ladner. “He has been on our staff as a volunteer assistant but has a wealth of experience and is very well respected. He has spent the last ten years overseas professionally as a head coach, so he brings an overseas professional attitude and gives our players that knowledge. We’re very blessed to have Coach Stiebing on our staff.”

This is the first year with the Lions for Witherspoon, who was the recruiting coordinator, academic liaison and living quarters director at Palm Beach State College last year. Witherspoon helped lead North Carolina A&T win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title in 2013 and advance to their first National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament since 1995.

“He was really one of the guys that was the architect of their program and helped get them to the national tournament a couple of years ago,” said Ladner.

Kiefer will be promoted to associate head coach in what will be his second season with the Lions. Before coming to the Lions, Kiefer served as the director of video services for South Carolina University.

“Coach David Kiefer has been elevated to the position that Coach Kyle Roane had,” said  Ladner. “David has been with me since I was at Jones County Junior College. He had stopped in South Carolina and then came back when we had an opening here. He is someone I have known for a long time and in my opinion one of the outstanding young recruiters in the United States in Division I.”

Two non-coaching changes were also made for the Lions basketball team.

“We brought in two new faces on our staff that are not recruiting coaches,” said Ladner. “Garland Wilson who comes to us from Jacksonville State University he is our new director of basketball operations replacing Chris Davis. Aaron Ardis is our new video coordinator, analytics and camp coordinator. He has been a student assistant prior to getting his degree. I can’t be more excited about our staff.”

The Lions will have an exhibition game against Southern-New Orleans in the University Center on Oct. 26. Ladner has lost only two starters from last season and believes the experienced roster bodes well for the team this season.

“There is two different avenues,” said Ladner. “If you are the Kentucky’s and the North Carolina’s of the world, you have NBA level players. You get them for one year and then they go to the draft. If you are in mid-major, which we are, you win with experience. In our league Stephen F. Austin has been the most experienced team and the most successful.”

The season will officially start for the Lions on Nov. 11 against Millsaps College in the University Center.

“The fact that we have the experience for the first time in my tenure here makes it exciting,” said Ladner. “We are certainly further along than we’ve ever been in terms of practice and where the team is in any point in my three years.”         

    Joey Steibing
Courtesy of Sports Info

 

David Kiefer 
Courtesy of Sports Info