Central Christian Hires New Volleyball Coach

McPherson, KS - January 25, 2012 - Central Christian College Athletic Director Melvin Sanders is pleased to announce that Covance Mortimer has been named the new Head Volleyball Coach for the Tiger program.

Mortimer is a native of the Bahamas, and currently resides in Nassau. He has been involved in the sport of volleyball for the past 16 years as a coach, player, scorekeeper, and statistician. Through those roles, he gained valuable experience in player development, team training, recruiting and administration. He has been around the sport of volleyball in some capacity for the last 28 years. He has played volleyball at the club level in both the United States and in the Bahamas. In the U.S., he played club ball in the USAV and, in the Bahamas, he was a part of the New Providence Volleyball Association. He played high school volleyball at C.C. Sweeting Sr. High School in the Bahamas. He played collegiate volleyball in the United States at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated with a B.S in Computer Information Systems.

He has coached the sport at all levels. He served as the head coach at his NCAA DII alma mater St. Augustine's College from 2007 - 2011. In his first year as their head coach, the Falcons were 9-22 and finished in 8^th place in the CIAA conference. In his last season, the Falcons were 25-9 and finished as the runner up in the conference. In addition to his team's success in 2010, Coach Mortimer was named the CIAA's Coach of the Year. He coached 21 All-Conference athletes, and 33 Academic All-Conference athletes. While at the helm, his Falcons upheld very high academic standards; twice his teams finished with the highest team GPA in the CIAA conference. For the past year, Coach Mortimer has been living in Nassau, Bahamas, coaching the Lady Technicians of the New Providence Volleyball Association, and also assisting the men's team.

In addition to being a volleyball coach and a player, Covance has had other professional responsibilities. For 22 years, Coach Mortimer was a member of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. He joined the force as a cadet in 1988 and was promoted to Constable in 1990. He remained on the police force even while attending college. While living in the United States, he worked as a clinical service technician for the Wake Medical Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Coaching is his love- to the point that he was willing to work as a volunteer assistant at St. Augustine's for several years before being given the opportunity as a paid staff member.

Coach Mortimer is excited about the challenges of taking on the Tiger volleyball program. He said, "It is truly a pleasure being given an opportunity tolead a program that is dedicated to improvementpersonally, spiritually, academically and athletically. Having the administration as an advocate in this journeyas wellis also exciting - not often is this the case, especially with non-revenue sports. The campus community of Central Christian College and the general community of McPherson has a great deal to look forward to...but patience is paramount with a change of direction however, success is inevitable with hard work and dedication,so we will train, prepare and compete to the best of our ability as a team and program."

CCC Athletics Director Melvin Sanders is excited about the experience that Coach Mortimer will bring to the volleyball program. "We are pleased with the hiring of Coach Mort. His volleyball coaching resume and experience are difficult to attain at the NAIA level; he has the ability and skill to be coaching at the NCAA II ranks or better. This hire speaks to the efforts of our institution to grow athletically but, at the same time, bring in the right fit for Central Christian. Coach Mort could've coached many places, but he wanted to be at an institution that puts high value on character. He cares about recruiting the student, person, player, in that order. Additionally, his recruiting base will be wide-reaching as he is a native of the Bahamas and has many volleyball connections in the Caribbean Islands.Coach Mort will be a great asset to Tiger athletics as we continue to build and establish our reputation throughout the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference and the National Christian College Athletic Association."

Coach Mortimer will be on campus later this spring to meet with the team and will be moving to McPherson in June.