For Immediate Release: Thursday, 9 October 2003
Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Sports Information Director (956) 381-2240

NAIA HALL OF FAME COACH TO BE FEATURED AT UTPA MEN'S BB CLINIC

EDINBURG, TX-Oklahoma Christian University Head Coach Dan Hays will be the featured clinician at the fourth annual UTPA Men's Basketball Clinic, which is scheduled for the UTPA Fieldhouse Saturday October 25th at 1:00 p.m.

The clinic is free of charge, and boys and girls basketball players and their coaches at any level are encouraged to attend.

Hays, a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, has coached at OCU for 20 years. The NAIA representative to the USA Men's Basketball Collegiate Committee, Hays assisted Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim in coaching the USA team to a gold medal at the USA Basketball Junior World Championships in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic in 1998. Hays also assisted former UTPA Head Coach Lon Kruger, who now serves an assistant coach for the New York Knicks, at the 1990 United States Olympic Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at the 1991 World Junior Championships in Edmonton, Alberta.

The president of the NAIA Coaches Association from 1991 to 1993, Hays was named Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the year four times, in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1999. He was twice named NAIA District 9 Coach of the Year, in 1981 and 1985.

"I started out working camps with Dan Hays while I was a high school coach, and he was my mentor," said UTPA Head Coach Bob Hoffman. "He spent a lot of time with me, helping me develop my ideas. I'm excited to have him down in the valley, so all the coaches can hear what he to say. He is a legend, and he is one of a kind. He has had some of the best shooting guards I've ever seen at any level, and he is someone that just loves basketball."

Pizza and soft drinks will be provided for those attending the clinic, which is sponsored in part by Pizza Hut and Coca-Cola.

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