Liberty Men’s Basketball Head Coach Ritchie McKay has announced the promotion of Matt Olinger to assistant coach, and the hiring of Chelsea Mangino as the program’s director of basketball operations.

Olinger has worked his way up the program’s ranks, serving as manager and head manager during his undergraduate studies at Liberty. He joined the coaching staff in 2008 as the director of basketball operations in McKay’s first stint with the program. During the 2008-09 season, the Flames garnered their first 20-win season since 1991 and also their first postseason appearance since the 2004 NCAA Tournament in the College Insider Tournament.

Olinger served as an interim assistant coach during the spring of 2008 and the spring and summer of 2009. In the fall of 2011, Olinger was promoted to assistant coach where he served until the 2013 season. Olinger is the only member of Liberty’s coaching staff to be a part of the program’s Big South Championship runs in both 2004 and 2013. This past year, Olinger served on McKay’s staff as the assistant to the head coach.

“Matt Olinger has faithfully served our basketball program for a decade and really deserves this promotion,” McKay stated. “We are excited about his continued ascension in our program. Matt is gifted and talented in a variety of areas and I am certainly looking forward to his contributions in recruiting and on the court with our student-athletes.”

Mangino enters her second year with the Flames, and her first year as the director of basketball operations for the program. While earning a bachelor’s degree in religious studies and a Master of Teaching in elementary education at Virginia, Mangino served four years as a student manager with the Cavaliers men’s basketball program (2010-14). After graduation, Mangino spent a year teaching third and fifth grade at an elementary school in Charlottesville.

Last season, Mangino served as a graduate assistant for the Liberty men’s basketball program. In her role, she oversaw recruiting, planned road trips and team meals, helped train a group of managers and assisted in other administrative and facility needs.

“I’ve seen Chelsea serve in so many capacities, first as a manager during my stint at UVA and as a graduate assistant at Liberty,” McKay stated. “Her organizational strengths as well as her demeanor and disposition are a blessing to our basketball family. She is an excellent representative of her family name, our basketball program and the university.”