Page 51 - Southern Magazine-Winter/Spring 2013

winter-spring 2013 / 49
ATHLETICS
the finals of the SAA Championship, hosted by Centre
College in Danville, Ky., falling to the Colonels by two
points in the championship game for a final score of
46-44. Senior Blaise White was named conference
Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year,
while senior Zac Richards and freshman Larry Thomas
were both named First-Team All-Conference and SAA
All-Tournament. White and senior Kevin Kegarise
also earned All-SAA Honorable Mention accolades.
Richards was also named CoSIDA Academic All-Region
Birmingham-Southern has named Kel Lange its new head men’s tennis coach.
Lange comes to the Hilltop with an extensive coaching background in the SEC and Big
12. A native of Lexington, Ky., he spent four seasons at the University of Kentucky as the
assistant women’s tennis coach. He left the Bluegrass state to become the head women’s
coach at Mississippi State University, where he spent the next four years returning the
Bulldogs to respectability.
Lange and his wife Tracy then moved to College Station, Texas, where he was the
assistant men’s tennis coach at Texas A&M University. In their first season, the Aggies
were recognized as having the top recruiting class in the country and returned to a Top 20
national ranking.
“Kel impressed all of us with his energy and enthusiasm for teaching tennis,” BSC
Athletics Director Joe Dean Jr. said. “His longtime
involvement with youth tennis and his passion for college
coaching will serve our tennis student-athletes very well for years to come.”
Lange’s experience also includes working with professional players, including French
Open doubles champions Luke and Murphy Jensen.
Betty Palmer, a longtime University of Alabama coach who took seven teams to
NCAA Regional berths, will take over BSC’s women’s golf program on June 1.
Palmer has been an athletic administrator and coach over the last 22 years at the
college and high school levels, including 17 seasons as head women’s golf coach for
UA. She was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1993 and coached five All-Americans and
17 All-SEC athletes, along with 34 Academic All-Americans and 87 Academic All-SEC
award winners.
“We are very excited to have Betty lead our women’s golf team here at Birmingham-
Southern,” Dean said. “She brings us a wealth of golf knowledge and experience and
will be a wonderful role model for our student-athletes.”
Palmer has been active in several organizations through the years, including serving
on the NCAA Golf Committee from 1995-98 and acting as the committee chair from
1995-97.
In 1998, Palmer guided the U.S. golf team in the U.S.-Japan Fuji Xerox
Championship matches, and she was active in the Southeastern Women’s
Championship from 1993-2002.
BSC lands new coaches for men’s tennis, women’s golf
Lange
Palmer
and Capital One Third-Team Academic All-America.
He led the SAA and ranked eighth in the nation in field
goal percentage (63.4%).
The Panther women’s team finished the year with
a 12-14 record and a 7-7 record in SAA play. Senior
Melanie Short was named First-Team All-Conference as
well as CoSIDA Academic All-Region. She ranked fifth
in the conference in both field goal percentage (48.3%)
and blocks (17).