Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Johnson City, Tenn. (Sept. 18, 2002) - East Tennessee State University's men's basketball coach, Ed DeChellis, has signed a new contract extension Director of Athletics Todd Stansbury announced today. The extension will keep DeChellis under contract through the 2006-07 season. DeChellis, set to begin his seventh year in Johnson City, took over the Buccaneers in 1996-97 and has improved the team from seven wins that season to back-to-back 18-win seasons over the past two years, winning Southern Conference North Division regular season titles in those seasons. The Southern Conference Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons, DeChellis has a mark of 85-82 in his six years at ETSU, including going 49-43 in SoCon games. Over the last two seasons ETSU has won more SoCon games (24) than any other conference member. "I am really happy that we have been able to finalize Eddie's new contract," said Stansbury. "Its definitely well deserved. We appreciate the work he has done in developing the kind of program here at ETSU that makes us proud. He has put together a team that not only wins on the court, but also in the classroom. Eddie's hard work makes him well deserving of this contract." "My family and I are very happy with our contract extension," said DeChellis. "I appreciate the support that Dr. Stanton and Todd have shown our program. I feel like we are very close to achieving our goals of becoming an NCAA Tournament team and hopefully in the next few years we can achieve those goals. I think we have come a long way and proved that we are one of the top teams in the Southern Conference. I am thankful for the opportunity to work towards our goal of becoming and NCAA Tournament team."