Marshall, Minn.: Southwest Minnesota State University mens basketball head coach Greg Stemen and womens basketball head coach Mike Power have each finalized their coaching staffs for the upcoming 2005-2006 season.

Stemen, who begins his fifth season as head coach this season, announced that Brad Bigler has been elevated to full-time assistant coach. Its the first time SMSU has had a full-time assistant coach since the 2002-2003 season. Bigler, a native of Ft. Madison, Iowa, who played for SMSU from 1997-2002, has been a graduate assistant coach the past two seasons. He began his coaching career during the 2002-2003 season when he served as the head girls basketball coach at Lakeview High School in Cottonwood, Minn.

Brad brings a very sound background to the position, said Stemen on Tuesday. He has a great knowledge of the game, is an outstanding recruiter as evidenced by this past years recruiting class, and he is a Southwest guy. When he sells this program, institution and community, he speaks from first hand knowledge and experience. He will have a very successful career as a college basketball coach and we are pleased he is continuing that career at SMSU.

Also joining the staff is former Mustang guard Rory Larson, who comes to SMSU after spending last season as a graduate assistant at NCAA Division I North Dakota State University. Larson, a native of St. Francis, Minn., who graduated from SMSU in 2004, spent five seasons in the Mustang program as a player appearing in 96 games scoring 595 points and connecting on 124 career 3-point field goals.

Also returning to the staff is Chris Costello, who begins his second year as graduate assistant and Jeff Hansen, who enters his fourth year as a volunteer coach.

It is good to have Rory back at Southwest in a graduate assistant role, said Stemen. He brings a strong basketball foundation to his position and his ability to evaluate will certainly help the future of our entire program. Rory is familiar with SMSU, and with this program in particular, which is very important in the recruiting process. Brad, Rory, Chris and Jeff form a very strong staff for our mens basketball program.

Mike Power, who was hired as head coach on May 16, has named two members to join his coaching staff. Saree Meccage has been named assistant coach, while Mike Heater joins the staff as a graduate assistant coach.

Meccage comes to SMSU after serving the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Northwest Missouri State University. During the 2003-2004 season, Northwest Missouri State finished 24-7, the schools best record in 20 years and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. A native of Billings, Mont., Meccage is a 2003 graduate of Metro State College (Colo.) where she played two seasons for the Roadrunners. She also played at Arizona Western Junior College and at the University of Incarnate Word (Texas).

Heater spent the previous two seasons on Powers staff at Bemidji State University where he worked with the BSU post players. Prior to that he was an assistant girls basketball coach for six seasons in Kansas. Heater, a native of Belle Plaine, Kan., is a 2000 graduate of Emporia State University (Kan.).

Im excited to name both Saree and Mike to the coaching staff, said Power. Saree is an outstanding up-and-coming coach. Shes a very personable person who will do a great job recruiting and also has a great knowledge of the game of basketball. Im obviously very familiar with Mike during his time at Bemidji State. He did a tremendous job with our strength and conditioning program and also did a great job with scouting.

Both teams open the 2005-2006 season on Saturday, November 19, at the University of North Dakota.