The Campus Chronicle

Volume 3, No. 32
August 15, 2003

The SCAD athletics department adds new staff members (from left to right) Mark Batman, Quin Monahan, Alexis Kmitis, Patricia Huisinga, Megan Thigpen and Ronnie Hiers.
Photo by Wayne C. Moore

Athletics department adds new staff

By Michael MacEachern

The Savannah College of Art and Design welcomes six new faces to the athletics department this summer.

They are Quin Monahan, assistant athletic director for compliance; Mark Batman, assistant men’s soccer coach/assistant sports information director; Patricia Huisinga, assistant women’s basketball coach/ticket manager; Megan Thigpen, graduate assistant volleyball coach; Bev Fanning, graduate assistant women’s basketball coach; and Ronnie Hiers, athletics department intern.

Quin Monahan
Monahan is no stranger to SCAD as he has been at the college since June 2001. He served as academic advisor for three months before becoming the coordinator of academic advising in September 2001.

Monahan’s duties include certifying student-athletes, keeping up with policies and procedures of the NAIA and working with coaches to ensure SCAD maintains compliance, and assisting the office of academic advising with student-athletes.

Prior to SCAD, Monahan served as a coach and counselor at the Savannah Christian Preparatory School for four years. He served as head coach of the women’s varsity soccer team for four seasons and as an assistant coach for the varsity volleyball team for three. He served as an academic counselor to 125 freshmen students and was the director of the student leadership program at SCPS.

Monahan earned his bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Bartlesville Wesleyan College in Bartlesville, Okla., and his Master of Arts degree in counseling from the Asbury Theological Seminary School in Wilmore, Ky.

Mark Batman
Batman comes to SCAD after spending the past two seasons at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa, as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s soccer teams. He also served as assistant coach for the women’s team at Wahlert High School in Dubuque during the spring of 2003 and helped guide them to a third place finish in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Class 2A state tournament.

Batman also served as coach for the under-16 boys and under-15 girls teams for the Dubuque Soccer Club from 2001-03. He also served as an assistant camp director for two seasons for the Dubuque Soccer Academy.

Batman served as an assistant coach for his alma mater Wilmington College of Ohio during the 2000 season. Batman played for the Quakers for four seasons and helped the team to two Sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs and ranked as high as No. 12 in the nation. He was named the team’s most valuable player during his senior season in 1999. He was twice named to the All-Ohio Athletic Conference teams during his career and was named a first-team All-Great Lakes Region selection in 1999. He also played professionally for the Dayton Gems of the Premier Development League in 2000.

Batman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sports management and a minor in business administration from Wilmington in 2000. He earned his master’s degree in physical education with an emphasis in administration of athletics from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 2003.

Batman holds a United States Soccer Federation “D” License, and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America National License and a Level I National Goalkeeping License. He is a member of the NSCAA and the USSF.

Patricia Huisinga
Huisinga joins the Bees after serving the past two seasons as the program director at the West Chatham YMCA in Pooler. She was responsible for the all of the athletics programs at the YMCA.

Prior to the YMCA, she assisted with the women’s basketball program for eight seasons at Denison Community High School in Denison, Iowa. During her stay, she served as an assistant basketball coach and served as commissioner of the annual summer basketball camps.

She was a three-sport athlete at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, as she played tennis, women’s soccer and women’s basketball. She was an academic all-conference selection in both soccer and tennis. Huisinga was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership organization.

Huisinga performed several internships at Simpson. She served as a student assistant coach for several teams and assisted in various administrative duties.

Huisinga graduated cum laude from Simpson with a bachelor’s degree in sports administration and a minor in communications in 1997.

Megan Thigpen
Thigpen comes to SCAD after playing the past four seasons at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio. Thigpen graduated summa cum laude from Defiance in May 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a minor in marketing.

While at Defiance, she was a four-year letterwinner for the Yellow Jackets. Thigpen received the Duane C. Hocking Female Athlete of the Year Award from Defiance in April 2003 after concluding her career as the greatest setter in school history. Her 2,667 career assists rank first in school history. She holds down the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in nine career categories.

A two-time team captain at Defiance, Thigpen also set multiple single-season records for passing and serving. Her .990 serve percentage from her freshman season is first all-time, and she established individual bests for total assists, assists per game, assist percentage, and total sets in a season throughout her final three years at DC.

Her accolades off the court are equally impressive. Thigpen graduated as the college’s valedictorian with a perfect 4.00 grade point average and was recognized as the athletic department’s top female student-athlete with the AAUW Women’s Scholastic Athlete Award.

Thigpen was named a first-team selection on the prestigious Verizon Academic All-America® College Division Volleyball Team. A respected leader at Defiance, she served on Defiance’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee for three years.

Thigpen is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in graphic design at SCAD.

Bev Fanning
Fanning joins the Bees after playing basketball the past four seasons for Findlay University located in Findlay, Ohio. The Marblehead, Ohio, native played in 102 games for the Oilers. During her career, she scored 514 points (5.0 points per game) and grabbed 152 rebounds (1.49 rebounds per game). She also dished out 133 assists, recorded 74 steals and connected on 78 three-point field goals. She served as co-captain of the team her senior season. She twice earned the GLIAC Academic-Athlete Award and was on the Dean’s List every semester.

Fanning scored 1,324 points during her playing career at Danbury High School. She was named the Toledo Area Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a first-team All-District 7 selection twice. She was the starting point guard in the North-South Ohio All-Star Classic her senior season. Fanning was also named District 7 Coaches Association Player of the Year as a senior when she averaged 21.3 points, five assists and five rebounds.

Fanning graduated summa cum laude from Findlay in May 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in visual-arts communications and art management with a minor in marketing. She is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in graphic design at SCAD.

Ronald Hiers
Hiers will assist in various areas of the athletics department, including game-day management and tickets.

Prior to SCAD, Hiers has served the past two years as assistant manager of the Downtown Athletic Club in Savannah. He also served three seasons as the head equipment manager for the Georgia Southern University baseball program from 1997-2000.

Hiers is completing work on his bachelor’s degree in sports management at Georgia Southern.

Alexis Kmitis
Kmitis begins her first season as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team after serving as a student assistant coach during the 2002 season.

Kmitis was a four-year standout for the Bees from 1998 until 2001. She was a member of the 1999 and 2000 teams that made the NCAA Division III Tournament. She was one of three captains on the team in 2001.She played in 45 matches scoring two goals and assisted on two others in her career with the Bees (statistics from her freshmen season were not available).

Kmitis, who is from Merrick, N.Y., is graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design from SCAD in May 2003.

MacEachern is the SCAD sports information director.