UC Irvine Announces Staffing Changes

UC Irvine announced two coaching changes and one administrative appointment Friday.

Volleyball Coach Andy Read resigned. A full-time teacher at Westminster High, Read said it had become too stressful to hold an off-campus job and coach on the college level. In four years, Read was 21-71, including 8-17 this season.

Former Long Beach State men’s basketball assistant Jason Levy has been hired in a similar capacity for the Anteaters. A New York native, Levy joined Long Beach in 1993 as an administrative assistant after graduating from Cal State Northridge.

Anteater Coach Rod Baker fired two assistants after the season. Levy was not retained by Long Beach when Seth Greenberg left to become the coach at South Florida.

Charlie Wright returns to Irvine as its director for marketing and promotions. He served as an administrative and marketing assistant for the Anteaters in 1993 and was the director of marketing and promotions for Nevada Las Vegas for the past two years. Wright was a three-year star at guard for the football team at Florida. He earned a master’s degree from Stanford in 1992 and was a graduate assistant football coach there for two seasons.

Wright replaces Liz Bridge, who became director of corporate sales at the Forum.

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Curt Cattau has resigned as softball coach at Concordia so he can spend more time as the school’s athletic director.

Cattau, 44, was appointed athletic director April 1. He is also working on a doctorate in sports administration from the University of New Mexico. His three-year record as softball coach was 68-66.

“I felt if I would stick with both the softball and athletic director jobs it would not be fair to both positions,” Cattau said. “For sheer enjoyment of coaching, I don’t want to quit. I enjoy it. But I still have to do my doctorate dissertation and I’m also teaching a full load of classes.”

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Anna Lechmann, a point guard at Mater Dei, state champion Los Angeles Harbor and Umpqua College of Oregon, signed a letter of intent with Idaho State, according to her mother, Pattie. Lechmann, averaged 9.6 points and 6.5 assists for Umpqua, where she played for Dave and Dick Strickland, who coached at Golden West College.