April 30, 2003

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Maryland assistant men's basketball coach Dave Dickerson was honored as one of the recipients of the 2003 AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award. The award recognizes outstanding assistant coaches throughout the nation on both the college and high school levels, and winners are selected from approximately 350,000 assistant coaches nationwide by a panel of judges from Coach & Athletic Director magazine.

Dickerson was one of only five NCAA Division I assistant men's basketball coaches selected for the award, and one of only 27 Division I college coaches honored overall.

Dickerson, who completed his seventh season as a member of head coach Gary Williams' staff in 2003, has built a solid reputation as a recruiter and mentor. His seven seasons on the Terp sideline has included seven NCAA tournament berths, five Sweet 16 appearances, two trips to the Final Four and Maryland's first-ever national championship in 2002. The 1990 graduate of the University of Maryland was an assistant coach at Gardner Webb, James Madison and Radford before returning to his alma mater in 1996.

"I would like to thank AFLAC for this recognition as one of the National Assistant Coaches of the Year," said Dickerson. "The award is a reflection of the hard work and success of our players, the Maryland basketball program and our fine university."

Said Williams: "Dave has been one of the top assistant coaches in the country, and he deserves to be recognized in this way. He has been a big part of our program for the past seven years."

The criteria in the second annual AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year program was based on longevity, expertise, contributions to the school and community, and special achievements throughout a coaches' career. The selections were based on nominations made by head coaches, athletic administrators, past and current student-athletes, fans and the board members themselves. The 500 honorees were selected from a field of more than 350,000 college and high school coaches in all sports across the nation.

"AFLAC is pleased to sponsor the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Program," Joe Kuechenmeister, AFLAC Senior Vice President stated. "Assistant coaches are the unsung heroes of American sport. So many of us were positively affected by our participation in sports that we wanted to pay tribute to these hard-working, under-recognized coaches who do so much to improve the young people that they work with."

"We were extremely impressed with the quality of the nominees," Bruce Weber, Publisher of Coach & Athletic Director commented. "The majority of the nominations were prepared in great detail. The nominators obviously felt very deeply about the assistant coaches they were recommending."

AFLAC is one of the world's leading providers of insurance at the worksite, insuring more than 40 million people worldwide.

2003 AFLAC Assistant Coaches - College Division I
Name              Institution          Sport

Matt Brady St. Joseph's Men's Basketball Rusty Osborne Alaska-Anchorage Men's Basketball Matthew Mott Auburn Women's Soccer Mike Calise Arizona State Women's Soccer Ron Smare San Jose State Men's Soccer Eric Yamamoto Santa Clara Men's Soccer John Deeley Connecticut Men's Soccer George Kiefer Connecticut Men's Soccer Dan Hammer Delaware Baseball John Schuster Delaware Swimming & Diving Bob Nash Hawaii Men's Basketball Kathy Carey Hawaii Women's Soccer Kendra DeRosa Western Illinois Women's Soccer Mike Freitag Indiana Men's Soccer Donald Madvig Indiana Women's Soccer Amy Edwards Notre Dame Women's Soccer Brian O'Connor Notre Dame Baseball Dave Dickerson Maryland Men's Basketball Ernie Yarborough Michigan Men's Soccer Anthony Adams UMBC Men's Soccer Randy Monroe UMBC Men's Basketball Seth Tierney Johns Hopkins Men's Lacrosse Moe Ankney Minnesota Football Colette Gilligan Minnesota Women's Soccer Tom Hauck Montana Football Marc Reeves St. John's Men's Soccer Keith Lytle Oklahoma City Baseball