ECU coaches’ contracts extended

Published Mar 26, 2004 by
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GREENVILLE, NC   (Mar. 26, 2004)   —   The East Carolina University Board of Trustees approved contract extensions for men’s basketball coach Bill Herrion and women’s basketball coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener on Friday, which will boost each coach’s association with ECU through the 2007-08 season.

Herrion’s contract was extended one year through April 1, 2008. Baldwin-Tener received a two-year extension through the same day and her annual salary was increased from $90,000 to $100,000.

Herrion just completed his fifth season at ECU, after taking over the reigns of the Pirate basketball program prior to the 1999-2000 campaign, making him the longest tenured coach here since Charlie Harrison was the coach for five years during the mid-80s.

During his five years at the helm of men’s basketball program, Herrion has brought a renewed sense of enthusiasm and pride to ECU basketball. Attendance at ECU home games has increased by more than 1,300 fans per game since the year prior to his arrival, while single season and single game attendance records have been shattered.

This past season, Herrion continued to mold his Pirates into a C-USA contender. ECU improved its league mark by two games from the previous season and finished 11th in the fifth toughest basketball conference in the nation.

He has compiled a 61-79 record in five seasons at ECU and during his 13-years as a collegiate head coach, has built a mark of 228-150 (.603), ranking him among the winningest active coaches in the country.

Baldwin-Tener has reversed the fortunes of the women’s basketball program in two short years. The season prior to her arrival, ECU only won six games. Under her direction, ECU has increased its win total from the previous season each year. In her first season, Baldwin-Tener doubled the team’s victories from the year before and then won an additional two games this season.

She has guided the Lady Pirates to the postseason conference tournament each of the past two years, after they failed to qualify the year before she took over. During her two seasons, she has compiled a 26-30 record at ECU and has built a 95-57 record in six years as a collegiate head coach.