Dan Lumpkin has left Cleveland State Community College after 20 years as its women's basketball coach.
Lumpkin has joined his wife in accepting employment at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. In his case he's a special assistant to Liberty women's basketball coach Carey Green, with whom Lumpkin has a long association.
"I'll be doing player developoment and video analysis and whatever else he asks me to do," Lumpkin said about joining a program that has become a regular participant in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Kelly Lumpkin is the new director of Liberty's athletic training education program, a position she had held since 2005 at Lee University in Cleveland.
Green, like Dan Lumpkin, is a Tennessee native with a coaching history in the state's community college league. He was the men's and women's coach at Jackson State for a while in the 1980s and before that was a women's assistant at Roane State under Jim Davis, whom he later joined at Clemson. Lumpkin worked camps for Davis in the early years of his own career after graduating from Austin Peay.
Lumpkin came to Cleveland State from the women's staff at Martin Methodist and compiled 337 basketball wins with the Lady Cougars. They were the NJCAA Region VII runners-up to perennial power Walters State in 2014 and 2015.
"I really enjoyed my time at Cleveland State," he said Tuesday. "There are great people there and I'll really miss it. I want to thank all the players who have come through there, and I hope for the best for the program."
Lumpkin also was the softball coach for four years and has been the region director for 16 years, during which time he has been very involved in the NJCAA on the national level.
"He was really invested in it," athletic director Mike Policastro said Tuesday evening. "He did an outstanding job with our women's program in all areas, not only on the court but as a mentor and leader. The girls who came into the program benefited from being under his direction.
"I hate to lose him, but I understand the family situation."
Policastro said the school began advertising the position Sunday and will take applications through mid-September.
"We're in individual workouts now, but official practice starts October first. We hope to have someone in place by then," he said. "This will be a transition year anyway, but we want to get someone in here and start building for next year."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.