GREENVILLE – Thiel College head football coach Sam Bauman recently announced the hiring of position coaches Kevin McLane and Darricle Jones.
McLane will train Thiel’s defensive line while Jones will train the tight ends.
McLane graduated from the University of Mount Union in December 2021, where he has served as a student assistant defensive line coach since 2019. A graduate of Seton LaSalle High School, McLane got his start in college football as a student assistant recruiter at Baldwin Wallace University.
McLane also gained experience as a scouting intern for College Gridiron Showcase in 2020 and as an assistant coach at Berea-Midpark High School in 2018.
Jones was the 2021 tight ends coach at Madonna University. He graduated from Concordia University in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and received a master’s degree in management from the University of Michigan in 2019.
Jones played all five offensive line positions and started 22 games at Concordia. In his senior season, Jones was named a National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) All-American and a Mideast League First Team Mid-States Football Association (MSFA) offensive lineman. He was also named a NAIA Scholar Athlete. During his junior season, Jones was named an MSFA Honorable Mention offensive lineman and a NAIA Scholar Athlete.
Jones returned to Concordia in 2019 as an assistant offensive line coach. The Cardinals went 8-3 that season and appeared in the NAIA playoffs. He served as an offensive line coach at Ann Arbor Huron High School in 2020, where he oversaw a first-team conference center and helped lead the team to its first playoff win in more than 20 years.
Thiel will open the 2022 season on September 3 away against Montclair State University.
GROVE CITY
• baseball — Grove City College Newman pitcher/infielder Shane Cato was named Rookie of the Week by the Presidents’ Athletic Conference on Monday afternoon after helping the Wolverines to a 4-1 weekend last week.
Cato hit .357 (5 for 14) with one home run, three runs scored and four runs under while starting at both third base and shortstop during the week. He hit a triple home run in Monday’s 13-4 Game 1 win over Franciscan and took a 2-3 lead in Thursday’s 5-0 Game 1 win over Saint Vincent.
Cato went 2-0 as a reserve pitcher last week with a 3.86 ERA, beating four men in 4 2/3 innings. He conceded two earned runs, three hits and no walks in his two appearances. Cato pitched three innings in a 9-7 comeback win in Game 2 against Franciscan last Monday. On Wednesday, he pitched 1 2/3 innings and recorded the win in Grove City’s 7-6 10-inning win over Washington & Jefferson.
Cato scores a .326 in a total of 15 starts this year. He also has a 2-1 record in five pitching appearances.
Grove City (27-12, 18-8 PAC) secured third place in this week’s four-team conference tournament. The Wolverines play Saint Vincent in the opening round of the conference tournament in Washington, Pennsylvania on Thursday at 4 p.m.
• Men’s Tennis — GCC meets Ohio Athletic Conference champion Ohio Northern in the first round of the NCAA Division III championship tournament at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The NCAA announced the tournament field and pairings with 44 teams on Monday afternoon.
Grove City (16-2) automatically secured a spot in the NCAA tournament by winning the PAC title on April 30 with a 5-1 win over Saint Vincent in the conference tournament championship game. The win extended Grove City’s winning streak to 13 games.
The Wolverines are competing in the NCAA tournament for the eighth time. Last season, Grove City defeated Roger Williams 5-0 in the first round before a 5-0 decision over Brandeis in the second round. Grove City is 3-4 all-time in first-round games of the NCAA tournament.
Ohio Northern (22-4) secured the OAC’s automatic bid in the NCAA tournament with a 5-3 win over John Carroll on Saturday. The Polar Bears have won a total of nine straight games, finishing 6-0 in OAC play.
Grove City and Ohio Northern have four common opponents this season. Both teams defeated Franciscan, Mount Union and Otterbein during the regular season. Grove City and Ohio Northern both fell to Wooster in non-conference games. Bad weather twice delayed Grove City’s game against John Carroll this spring.
Winner Grove City-Ohio Northern meets 2021 national runners-up Case Western Reserve in the second round on Saturday. The other game on Friday will see Kalamazoo versus Nazareth. This winner plays Wisconsin-Whitewater in the second round. Saturday’s second round winners meet on Sunday, with that winner advancing to the national quarter-finals.