March 30, 2010
Indianapolis, Ind. – Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt will receive one of four “Guardians of the Game” awards this week from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The NABC will present its most prestigious awards to three current college coaches and one former coach during the 2010 NCAA® Final Four® and NABC Convention in Indianapolis.
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt is the recipient of the NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Education, presented by The Hartford; Columbia (Mo.) College head coach and athletic director Bob Burchard will receive the NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Leadership, presented by Papa John’s; Mac Petty, head coach at Wabash (Ind.) College, will receive the Guardians of the Game Award for Advocacy presented by Sof-Sole; and former St. Bonaventure and Duquesne head coach Jim Satalin, the national director of the Coaches vs. Cancer program, will receive the NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Service.
The awards will be presented on Sunday, April 4, 2010, at the AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show at the Murat Centre in Indianapolis beginning at 6 p.m. (EDT). Among the many awards to be presented during the show are coach and player of the year awards in NCAA Divisions I, II and III; the presentation of the NCAA Division I first and second team All-America players; the NABC Division I Defensive player of the year award; the NABC/Pete Newell Big Man of the Year award presented by YRC Worldwide; and the Naismith Trophy presented by AT&T to the nation’s most outstanding player.
Recognized early-on as one of the rising stars of college coaching, Paul Hewitt served nine years as an assistant coach before earning his first head coaching position at Siena College in 1998. After three successful seasons, he left for Georgia Tech, where he led the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA tournament in his first season and to the NCAA championship game three years later in 2004. As successful as Hewitt has been on the court, he has also been a leader off the court and in his community. He conducts an annual golf outing and auction to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Atlanta; serves on the board of directors for Hearts Everywhere Reaching Out for Children (H.E.R.O.), which organizes activities and benefits HIV-infected children; and Camp Twin Lakes, which works with children with serious illnesses and special needs. In 2004, he conducted the Paul Hewitt Teamwork Summit, bringing together prominent figures in sports and Atlanta business circles to teach and promote leadership techniques. Hewitt is a former president and serves on the board of directors for the Black Coaches Association, and frequently participates in public forums on issues facing college basketball and the student-athletes that participate in the sport. In 2009, Hewitt was the only NCAA Division I basketball coach to become part of a coalition of representatives of all levels of basketball — NCAA, NBA, AAU, WNBA, USA Basketball, among others — that began an initiative to improve the quality of youth basketball in America. He had also been a member of the NCAA’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Group.
Tickets for the AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show are available at the box office at the Murat Centre in Indianapolis; online at www.livenation.com; and by phone at 317-238-5151.
Here’s a look at the other three recipients:
NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Leadership presented by Papa John’s
In 22 seasons as the head basketball coach at Columbia College, Bob Burchard’s teams have averaged almost 25 wins and have become a perennial national contender in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The Cougars have advanced to the NAIA men’s national championship tournament 14 times, including 13 of the last 16 seasons. Among active coaches, Burchard ranks among the NAIA career leaders in wins with 544 and in winning percentage (72%). He was inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association in 2008 and has been active as a “Court Coach” with USA Basketball. He was the NAIA representative on a staff headed by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim in 2000; was appointed the NAIA representative for USA Basketball’s Collegiate Committee in 2005; and served the NAIA as a “court coach” in the summer of 2008 when he travelled to Washington, D.C., for the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team trials. Burchard, who is also the director of athletics at Columbia, earned the Columbia Kiwanis Club’s Don Faurot Sportsperson of the Year Award in 1996; and was recognized as a recipient of the Kent Heitholt Memorial Award, presented to an individual who is committed to the advancement of women in athletics, in 2004.
NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Advocacy presented by Sof-Sole
Mac Petty entered the 2009-10 season, his 34th at Wabash College, ranked 11th among active coaches in NCAA Division III for career wins. He added to his legacy with the Little Giants this season, guiding his team to an 18-6 record, raising his career win total to 524. Among those victories, Petty’s team won the 1981-82 NCAA Division III championship with a 24-4 record. A basketball and baseball standout at the University of Tennessee who has been inducted into several halls of fame, Petty has been active nationally promoting men’s college basketball. He was an assistant to former Purdue coach Gene Keady in 1985 with the U.S. Jones Cup team in Taiwan and has served on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee. Petty serves as a Division III congressman with the NABC and has been a member of the research committee and the Division III All-America committee. In his community, Petty is a sponsor of the Wabash Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is active in Kiwanis Club and the First United Methodist Church.
NABC Guardians of the Game Award for Service
Jim Satalin was a three-year starter at St. Bonaventure University and helped lead the Bonnies to an NCAA appearance in 1968 before being drafted by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. He returned to his alma mater to become the head basketball coach in 1973 and led St. Bonaventure to a 156-93 record and the 1977 NIT championship, earning Eastern College Athletic Conference coach of the year honors. Satalin moved on to coach at Duquesne in 1982 and earned Atlantic-10 Conference coach of the year honors twice. He began his career with Coaches vs. Cancer, a collaborative effort by the American Cancer Society and the NABC, in 1995, and was named national director of the program in 1998. Since its inception, Coaches vs. Cancer has raised more than 55 million dollars and, under the direction of Satalin, has added numerous programs and events including the annual Suits and Sneakers weekend, various BasketBall Galas across the country and the 2K Sports Classic for Coaches vs. Cancer, a tournament held each November at Madison Square Garden in New York.
About the National Association of Basketball Coaches
Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Forrest “Phog” Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently claims nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men’s basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today’s student-athletes. The four core values of being a Guardian of the Game are advocacy, leadership, service and education. Additional information about the NABC, its programs and membership, can be found at www.nabc.org.
