Jan. 30, 2006

West Texas A&M University head football coach Don Carthel was tabbed as the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame Football Coach of the Year, announced Sunday (Jan. 29). Carthel will be honored at the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. held at Amarillo College's Ordway Auditorium.

Under Carthel's direction, WTAMU won the Lone Star Conference Championship for the first time since 1986, finishing with a 10-2 mark, the first season to end with 10 wins since 1950, and is WTAMU's first winning season since 1998. Six of the Buffs' wins were come-from-behind, including the LSC championship clinching victory at Tarleton State. Four wins were on the final play of the game.

Carthel directed perhaps one of the biggest turnarounds in college football in his first season at the helm of WTAMU, turning around a program that had won a combined seven games in the last five seasons, and picked last in the LSC South Preseason Poll, transforming the Buffaloes from underdog to top dog in having their first winning season since 1998.

Carthel came to WTAMU after a year-plus stint with the Amarillo Dusters, now of the Arena Football League 2, leading them to a 15-3 record in winning the Intense Football League championship before making the leap to AFL2 this year and had a 2-1 record when Carthel resigned his post to take over the WTAMU program. Carthel has a 23-3 record in his last 26 games coaching and a 27-6 (.818) record overall combined of his Dusters and Buffaloes' coaching tenures.

This season, Carthel and WTAMU playing in front of the largest average home crowd in NCAA Division II at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, hosting an average of 13,089 fans for WTAMU football games this season. WTAMU also set an LSC and a Kimbrough Memorial Stadium record with 22,993 fans for the Homecoming, 52-51 OT, win over border-rival Eastern New Mexico University in the Wagon Wheel game on Oct. 8, 2005.

Carthel will be joined by three WTAMU athletes being honored as Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame Athletes of the Year, women's basketball player Celeste Stevenson, volleyball player Brittani Bell, and men's soccer player Josh Fender.

-WT-