I apologize for those of you who tried to check-in with us yesterday afternoon. Our site was down for a few hours in the middle of the day, but the problem has been fixed thanks to the best web-developer in the world. When I told him we were down, he got right on it. He sent me an email a short time later saying that we were back up and running. Instead of just telling me that we are good, he sent me this:

"A configuration file that used to be parsed is now no longer read at all. However, they provide an alternative method for configuring the same settings, so I just ported the configuration information to the new file and format and it seems to be working fine now."

Gotta love these computer guys! He may as well have written that in Chinese – I have no idea what any of that means, but I’m glad that the problem was fixed and we are back in business!

Here’s today’s dirt….

Jeff Mailhot, an assistant at Howard College (TX) has landed a similar position Midland College (TX). Mailhot had been on the Howard staff for two seasons and spent two years as an assistant at Hopkins High School (MN) before that. He has also coached for the Howard Pulley Panters AAU program.

I have heard that Clarke (IA) Justin Einerson will be replacing Mailhot at Howard. He had served as an assistant at Clarke for the past three seasons. Einerson is a 2007 graduate of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he served as the basketball program’s head manager during the 2006-07 season and as a volunteer head manager and administrative assistant in 2007-08.

University of Alabama graduate assistant Willie Watson will be named as the assistant coach at Marion Military Institute (a Junior College in Alabama). He spent the past six years at UA as a manager and GA.

Alex Johnson has been named graduate assistant at Indiana State. He has coached with Indiana Elite and interned in basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats and in public relations for the New York Knicks. He has also been an assistant director for the Hoosier Shootout and the Peach State showcase. He graduated from Indiana this past May.

Dillard University (LA) has hired Bernard Griffith as the new head coach. The 63-year old Griffith spent the past year serving as the head coach and AD at L.B. Landry High School (LA). A press conference is scheduled for next Thursday to make the official announcement.