NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans athletic department formally announced the addition of three sports as the University prepares to reclassify to NCAA Division II in 2011-12 school year.
This fall, the University will begin competing in women's golf, as well as men's and women's cross country according to Athletic Director Amy Champion.
All three sports were suspended in 2005 following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“Sponsoring these sports will allow our University to comply with all NCAA Division II sport sponsorship requirements,” said Champion. “Prior to the additions, we lacked a men's sport during the NCAA's fall trimester and needed two women's sports to meet the five-sport requirement.”
“Adding these will sports will show how far we have come as UNO has not been compliant for any level of NCAA competition based on sport sponsorship stipulations since our institution suspended sports in 2005.”
Heading the UNO women's golf program will be Chris McCarter, who is currently in his eighth season as the head coach for the Privateer men's program. The University will hire an assistant this summer to assist McCarter, who has already made progress towards filling out his roster for next season.
The athletic department staff is presently in the process of laying the ground work for the UNO cross country head coach, who will be hired in the next several months.
A successful program during its previous run on the Lakefront, the Privateer women's cross country team won the 2000 Sun Belt Conference championship – the lone conference title for any UNO women's sport in institution history.
Current students or perspective students interested in competing in either of these sports are encouraged to fill out the recruiting questionnaires available on UNOPrivateers.com.
