Sept. 8, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - The Central Pennsylvania Nittany Lion Club will be hosting a Central PA Basketball Preview Dinner at the West Shore Country Club in Camp Hill, Pa., on Thursday, October 1. The head coaches of the Penn State men's and women's basketball programs will be headlining the event.
Head coach Ed DeChellis and Nittany Lions Talor Battle, Andrew Jones and David Jackson will represent the men's team, while head coach Coquese Washington and Lady Lions Meredith Monroe and Julia Trogele will attend for the women's team. Both head coaches are scheduled to speak at the dinner.
The event will be held at the West Shore Country Club in Camp Hill. The reception is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 6:15 p.m.
To attend the dinner, please call Jim Smeltzer at (717) 761-0211. Reservations are required and tickets are $35. Reservations and reserved table assignments are on a first-come, first-served basis. The event is sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Nittany Lion Club.
Named the 2009 Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year and 2006 Coaches vs. Cancer Man of the Year, DeChellis is entering his seventh season at the helm of the Nittany Lion basketball program. He has established a legacy of achievement on and off the basketball court in his first 13 seasons as a collegiate head coach first guiding East Tennessee State to three conference divisional titles and the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade before becoming the 11th head coach in Penn State men's basketball history. He led Penn State to one of its finest ever basketball seasons in 2008-09 as the Nittany Lions posted a program record 27 wins and earned Penn State's first-ever national tournament championship in basketball as the Lions won the 2009 National Invitation Tournament at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Washington is in her third season as the head coach of the Lady Lions. Washington returns first team All-Big Ten selection Tyra Grant and brings in the 14th-ranked recruiting class by ESPN/HoopGurlz, including high school All-Americans Alex Bentley and Nikki Greene. Washington is currently serving on the 29-member WBCA Board of Directors and is a member of the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team Committee. She has been active in the community, creating Coquese's Drive for the Women's Resource Center. The first two Coquese's Drives raised more than $18,000 for the Centre County Women's Resource Center to aid in the fight against domestic violence.