SFA Sports Information/www.sfajacks.com

May 9, 2009

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball coach Danny Kaspar has been named the 2009 Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Division I Coach of the Year. The TABC made the announcement at its annual awards banquet Thursday night in San Antonio, Texas.

The award is Kaspar's first in nine seasons as a Division I head coach in Texas - all with SFA. The Corpus Christi native has spent 18 years in all as a head coach in Texas, the first nine having come at The University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

Kaspar earned the 2009 award by guiding the Lumberjacks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. The `Jacks went 24-8 - their second consecutive 20-win season and fourth in Kaspar's tenure - and won the Southland Conference championship for the second time in as many years. SFA went on to take the SLC Tournament title, earning the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Championships.

The tournament appearance follows SFA's trip to the 2008 National Invitation Tournament, marking the first time in the program's Division I tenure for the `Jacks to play in a national postseason tournament in back-to-back campaigns. In all, SFA has won 50 games the last two seasons.

Kaspar was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year in 2008, and his team has produced the SLC Player of the Year in consecutive seasons, with Josh Alexander winning the honor a year ago and Matt Kingsley taking the 2009 award. Each player was named to the Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America team in his respective Player of the Year campaign.

-- SFA --