HARRIMAN – Officials at Roane State Community College have announced former head baseball coach David Lane has been named Interim Athletic Director.
Lane, who has been Director of School’s Middle College for the last five years, reacted to the announcement stating, “I’m extremely excited. This is an opportunity to come back and get into athletics, working around coaches with whom I’m familiar, as well as coaches with whom I’m becoming more familiar.”
He added, “I’m looking forward to building those relationships, being around the student-athletes and seeing what our future as an athletic program can be.”
Teresa Duncan, Vice President of Work Force Development at Roane State, stated, “Coach Lane is an incredible addition to Roane State’s athletic department. His passion for excellence and student success will help continue to move our program forward. We are thrilled to have him at the helm.”
A graduate of Roane County High School in Kingston, Lane said, “It’s good that I’m able to come back and do a job at this level and also be close to home.”
Being local, he believes his familiarity with the area serves as an advantage to the program. Lane claimed that having coached high school and college in East Tennessee afforded him opportunities to create a lot of connections and build relationships.
“I think drawing community support from the different areas toward Roane State and Roane State athletics is vitally important,” stated Lane. “We’ve got to find the way to help develop scholarship opportunities – not only facilities – for our student athletes, which is an ever-present and ever-growing need.”
Lane noted an additional benefit to being local is, “Being able to look for student-athletes from our area high schools who can play at this level and seeing what options there are to draw them in.”
Lane first came to Roane State in the Fall of 2006 as an assistant baseball coach under then head coach Larry Works. After three seasons, Lane succeeded Works as head baseball coach, a position which he held for five years.
“It was a great experience,” he commented. “I played at the college level, so being able to coach at the college level, seeing the recruiting process and things like that – it’s a time in my life I look back on and really enjoyed it and appreciated the opportunity.
“Now, I think I can use that [experience] to help segue into the new role as AD.”
In succeeding long-time athletic director Randy Nesbit, Lane said, “In this business, in this area of athletics, especially in today’s world, you don’t find very many people that had a loyalty to their institution, to their players, to their staff and their community like you do with Randy Nesbit.
“Coach Nesbit is an icon of this institution. He is incredibly well-respected. I think it’s a testament to him the example that he set by the dedication not only to his players, but all the student-athletes in the institution as a whole.”
Lane spoke about the various challenges awaiting him saying, “As far as they go, I hit them like I do everything else. There’s a way, there’s an answer and we’re going to find the best way to address them to make sure we’re putting the best product out there we can.
“I think we have a great staff and great student-athletes and I’m just here to help any way I can and help the program progress.”Currently, Roane State fields seven teams consisting of some 120 student athletes. The programs participate in various levels of NJCAA athletics. Men’s programs include, basketball, baseball and golf, while women’s athletics are represented by teams in basketball, softball, volleyball and (as of this fall) golf.
