Hope College has announced the appointment of two new coaches of fall sports teams.
Leigh Sears will become the women's soccer coach while Sam Bedrosian will take over the reigns of women's golf program.
Both of the appointments are connected to the resignation of Donna Eaton from the Hope faculty. A member of the faculty since 1984, Eaton will be moving out of state. Eaton has been a successful coach in several sports. She coached the volleyball team from 1984-90, guiding the Dutch to a 153-77 record and a first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament in 1987. She also served as women's track coach for eight seasons (1989-98) and for the past two years for the women's golf coach.
Sears joins the Hope faculty as a fulltime member of the kinesiology faculty with the rank of assistant professor. Bedrosian will be a part-time member of the athletics staff.
Sears has been the women's soccer coach at Marietta College (Ohio) since 1994. She was a three-sport standout at Ohio Wesleyan University. She was an all-conference player in the North Coast Athletic Conference in three sports -- soccer, basketball and track. In her senior year in soccer, she was voted the Ohio and conference player of the year and achieved All-America recognition as a goalkeeper. In 1998 she was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan University Athletic Hall of Fame.
After receiving her bachelor of arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan, she earned the masters of science degree from Ithaca College (N.Y.).
In addition to her teaching and coaching responsibilities at Marietta, she has been faculty advisor to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She has served a chief clinician for women at the Ohio High School Soccer Coaches Association and was a member of the NCAA Division III Great Lakes region women's soccer advisory committee. She has also been a director and clinician at numerous soccer and basketball camps.
Bedrosian brings a wealth of coaching experience to the position, including 15 seasons as men's golf coach at Aurora (Ill.) University. He served at Aurora University for three decades as director of athletics. He was also Aurora's softball coach (1977-94), posting 384 victories over 18 seasons.
Prior to his leaving fulltime educational administration, he was director of athletics at Central College, Pella, Iowa (1994-97).
He has remained active, teaching graduate courses in physical education and sports management and undergraduate courses in areas such as golf at Western Michigan University.
He currently provides private golf instruction to beginners and intermediate players of all ages in the South Haven area where he and his wife are residents. He has remained current on the teaching of the game by attending National Golf Foundation workshops for golf instructors.
Dr. Bedrosian received the bachelor and masters degrees from Northern Illinois University and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Utah.