Kenny Murphy, assistant soccer coach at Brown, has been named head men's soccer coach at Connecticut College. Murphy follows Bill Lessig, who won 269 games in his 38 seasons and was the first head coach of the Camel program.

Murphy, a former professional soccer player, spent 16 years on Wall Street as a successful commodities broker before joining Brown's soccer program in 2003.

"I respect and admire the academic commitment inherent among NESCAC colleges," Murphy said. "I am proud and excited to work with the student athletes at Connecticut College, where athletics and physical fitness are important components of their broader liberal arts education."

At Brown, Murphy's teams earned four NCAA Tournament Berths, capturing three Ivy League championships along the way. Under the direction of Brown's head coach, Murphy coordinated recruiting efforts, played an active role in fundraising and assisted with academic counseling for a program that consistently ranks among the nation's top 10 percent for academics.

Fran Shields, Connecticut College's athletic director and chair of physical education, says Murphy is a highly respected soccer professional who will bring a fresh perspective to the soccer program. "He has played professionally, coached at the highest collegiate level and has years of experience with club teams," Shields said. "We are confident his experience at Brown will help him attract talented student-athletes capable of succeeding on the NESCAC playing field and in the classroom."

Forward Trevor Prophet, a Connecticut College rising junior who was named to the 2008 All-NESCAC team, anticipates an exciting future for Camel soccer under Murphy's leadership.

"After serving on the coaching search committee, I am 100 percent sure that Ken Murphy is the man for this job," Prophet said. "I have so much respect for what he has accomplished as a player and as an assistant coach at Brown."
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Southern Methodist University men's soccer coach Tim McClements has announced the hiring of assistant coach Phil Wolf, who moves to SMU after eight seasons as head coach at NAIA powerhouse Azusa Pacific University.

Wolf led Azusa Pacific to the NAIA National Championship and a 20-1-1 record in 2007 and earned the Brine-NAIA Coach of the Year award. The 2007 NAIA championship was the third-straight appearance in the national title game for Wolf. Over his eight seasons as a head coach, Wolf has posted a 120-29-18 record and was named Golden State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times. At Azusa Pacific, Wolf coached the 2008 NAIA National Player of the Year and has had one players selected in each of the past two MLS SuperDrafts. Previous to his tenure at Azusa Pacific, Wolf was an assistant coach at Wheaton College (Ill.), where he was a part of the coaching staff that won the 1997 NCAA Division III Championship and set an NCAA record with a 66-match unbeaten streak.

"We are excited that Phil decided to join our staff," said McClements. "He has an outstanding soccer background as both a player and a coach. He excelled as a player at both the collegiate and professional levels and has been part of two National Championship programs as a coach. Phil will be a great addition to our staff."

Wolf was a three-time All-American as a player at Wheaton College and was a member of Wheaton's 1990 Division III Final Four squad. Wolf graduated with the third-most points in Thunder history (135), while his teams posted a record of 77-10-6 over his four years. He played five years of professional soccer, splitting time between the NPSL and the USL. Wheaton is now well represented at SMU as Coach McClements is also a Wheaton graduate, completing his college soccer career in 1987. He appeared in two NCAA Division III Tournaments after one year of play at Division I Indiana.

Hamilton will join the New England Small College Athletic Conference as a full-playing member effective the fall of 2011, it was announced today by Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin and chair of the NESCAC presidents, and Andrea Savage, Executive Director of the NESCAC.

The Continentals are moving from the Liberty League, where seven of their sports currently compete: men's and women's soccer, field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, and men's and women's basketball. The remainder already participate in the NESCAC.

"We are pleased to welcome Hamilton College into the NESCAC as a full participant," said Mills. "The NESCAC places a high value on collegiality, and in making this decision, the conference recognizes its leadership position as a group guided by the highest educational standards and academic principles."

The NESCAC presidents weighed the practicalities and the cost of fully integrating Hamilton as a playing member of the conference while also considering the philosophical and educational missions of both member institutions and the conference as a whole. During the presidents' most recent meeting on April 15 in Brunswick, Maine, they agreed to have Hamilton participate as a full conference member.

"I am grateful to my fellow NESCAC presidents for the collegiality they showed Hamilton in reaching this decision," said Hamilton president Joan Hinde Stewart.

Implementation of the addition of Hamilton in the seven sports, which will include conference scheduling and championships, will be reviewed and completed by the athletic directors of the NESCAC prior to the start of the 2011-12 season.

The move would leave the Liberty League with the minimum seven men's and women's soccer teams required to maintain an automatic bid in each sport.

The Division III soccer season is in full swing and then some and we're glad that more and more people are finding our new site. For those of you who are new, here's what we're about.

Jim Matson, our managing editor, has written about Division III soccer before and has been wanting to do a site like this for a while now. He'd been talking to us about doing a weekly soccer column for D3sports.com since before we had D3sports.com up and running.

Instead, Jim seized the moment last fall and bought the D3soccer.com domain name. Although we are still adding to the site, most of the major functions are in place, including:

Scores. Thanks to our partnership with PrestoSports, we have Division III soccer scores for about 20 conferences, right around half of Division III. Click here for scores, or visit the Scoreboard link on the left-hand menu rail.

Forum. Or message board, if you prefer. If you're already a member of our Division III basketball, baseball or football boards at D3boards.com, you're set to post right now. Otherwise, you do need to register to join the Division III men's soccer and Division III women's soccer discussions. But we turn around all registrations in under 24 hours and most of them in under 6 hours. The registration is partly so we can keep spammers from flooding the boards with sales pitches. (When you register, make sure you read the Terms of Service and your mailbox is set to receive mail from us.)

Top stories. You can't miss these -- these are the wrapups of days of action on the front page that Jim assembles, using his experience and expertise in Division III soccer news.

Game stories. Sports Information Directors have the ability to log in and post game stories and other news releases directly on our site, and more and more of them do on a regular basis. These are stories from around Division III and can be found directly on the home page, between the top story and the second story on the front.

Daily Dose. As in, the blog, with the box and links to the most recent posts in the upper right-hand corner. This is where other items of interest will be posted, such as rankings, notes and other items that might generate discussion. You'll need to register to post but it's a quick process and your e-mail doesn't appear with your comments.