College coaching positions often are like a revolving door – new coaches replace those who have moved on to better jobs or have presided over poorly performing programs.

GW’s doors have been spinning at a rapid rate this summer. Ten new and promoted coaches will take over or assist varsity athletic programs this year.

Much of the turnover in the athletic department occurred in the men’s basketball program. Former GW head coach Mike Jarvis left Foggy Bottom to take over the basketball program at New York’s St. John’s University earlier this summer. A week later, on June 18, former University of Texas coach Tom Penders was announced as Jarvis’ successor.

With Penders came three new assistant coaches, and former GW assistants Kevin Clark and Mike Jarvis II followed Jarvis to St. John’s. Brian Blaney, another Jarvis assistant, stayed with GW as director of basketball operations for the men’s program.

Rob Wright, brought on staff as associate head coach, is starting his second year as an assistant to Penders.

“I am very pleased that I got the chance to follow Coach Penders here,” Wright said. “Last year was my first year coaching collegiate-level basketball, and I am still learning a lot from him.”

Before joining Penders for the 1997-’98 season at Texas, Wright was the head coach at Carter High School in Dallas, where he compiled a record of 92-18, reaching the Class 5A finals three consecutive seasons (1995-’97).

Bonzie Colson, who played under Penders for two years at the University of Rhode Island, also joins GW’s staff as an assistant coach. The 1989 URI graduate has spent the last five years as a coach with Ballou High School in Washington, D.C. Colson was the restricted earnings coach for URI in 1992-’93 and said he is glad to be coaching collegiate basketball again.

“I am very happy and very honored to be a part of Coach Penders’ staff,” Colson said. “I had a chance (at URI), and a lot of times you don’t get a second chance in this business. I’m thankful I got mine.”

The third assistant coach is Penders’ son, Tommy Penders Jr., who graduated from Texas in 1995. Penders Jr. joins GW after a year as an assistant at URI.

But men’s basketball is by no means the only GW sport touched by coaching changes. Both the men’s and women’s soccer programs have different head coaches than they did last season, although neither coach is new to GW.

George Lidster returns to the helm of the men’s program for his eleventh season after missing last season because of problems returning to the United States from England. During Lidster’s 10 seasons as head coach, the Colonials compiled a record of 94-71-24, including GW’s first-ever regular-season Atlantic 10 title in 1992. John McNamara, who coached the Colonials to a record of 6-11-1 in 1997 as acting head coach, returns to his assistant coaching position.

The women’s program lost head coach Shannon Higgins-Cirovski in April when she resigned to take the reins of the U.S. under-18 women’s national soccer team. Assistant coach Michelle Rodriguez-Smith promptly was elevated to interim head coach for the 1998 season, and new assistant coach Brian Pensky was hired at the beginning of August.

“It’s nice to be at the next level,” said Pensky, who has been an assistant and head coach for a boys’ varsity high school team since 1991. “I’ve been fortunate to coach high school players who have gone on to play in college, but it’s not quite the same as coaching for a college team.” Pensky is the head coach of two boys club teams in Bethesda and is also a staff coach with the Maryland State Olympic Development Program, where Rodriguez-Smith once served as the head coach for the under-17 and under-19 women’s soccer teams.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs also have a new head coach who is not new to GW. Former assistant coach Dan Rhinehart was elevated to head coach when Marc Hagen resigned to pursue business interests.

“Marc left a strong program and a solid core of good swimmers,” said Rhinehart, who served as an assistant coach under Hagen for the past three seasons. “I’m really looking forward to the season. Actually, I’m chomping at the bit to get to A-10s already, but we have to take it one day at a time.”

Rhinehart inherits two programs that are in the top tier of the A-10, as the men’s program finished second and the women finished third in the conference meet last season.

Hagen, the A-10 Coach of the Year in 1998, said he felt he needed to leave his job at GW because of financial reasons.

“I loved coaching and the team was great,” said Hagen, who is now involved in pharmaceutical sales. “The team and I had some success, but I needed a change. Coaching just wasn’t a viable option for me to maintain the kind of lifestyle I am used to living.”

New to the athletic department is men’s tennis head coach Tom Hawkins, who replaced acting head coach Danny Cantwell. Hawkins takes over a GW squad that went 8-14 in 1998 and took third place in the A-10.

“One of my long-term goals has always been to become a collegiate coach,” Hawkins said. “I hadn’t been actively looking for a coaching position, but when the opportunity arose, I took it.”

Hawkins, who will continue to be tennis director at Regency Sport and Health Club in McLean, Va., was named the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Professional of the Year in 1994 and 1996 by the U.S. Professional Tennis Association.

Women’s volleyball has a new assistant coach, as Yvette Moorehead replaces former assistant Toby Rens. Rens left GW to take the head coaching position at Northern Michigan University.

“I applied for the job and I got here and it’s a great position,” said Moorehead, a graduate and four-year letter-winner in volleyball at the University of Kentucky. “This is a very hard-working team.”

Moorehead spent three seasons as an assistant at Eastern Kentucky University before serving as an assistant at Iowa State University last season.

The head coach for women’s tennis and the assistant coach for the swimming and diving programs have not been named yet.