DSU names new football head coach

The Delaware State Hornets have a new football coach to lead them in the 2011 season. Kermit Blount replaces Al Lavan whose contract was not renewed after this past season.

Blount is a North Carolina native.  He comes to the Dover campus after 16 years as the head football coach for Winston-Salem State University.  His resume there includes two Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Championships and a total of three CIAA Championship game appearances.  He’s also had teams in the Pioneer Bowl on two occasions.

“Coach Blount has proven he knows how to guide student-athletes to championship-level seasons as well as accomplish high standards of academic success,” Dr. Harry Williams, DSU President said. “The Search Committee is to be commended for its diligence in reviewing the candidates, in engaging in earnest deliberations and arriving at its recommendation.”

DSU says it interviewed over 50 candidates to replace Lavan who leaves the Hornets as the winningest coach in DSU history.  One of his teams made a Division I-AA playoff appearance in 2007.

In introducing Blount the school made a point of saying that the graduation rate in Winston-Salem during the time Blount was coach went from 43% in 1993 to 80% in 2009.

Blount has a wife, Ava, and two grown children.