May 19, 2005

Columbia, SC – After working the past two years under Carolina head coach Dave Odom, Gamecock volunteer basketball assistants Jeremy Shyatt and Matthew Parke have been hired as the Director of Basketball Operations at East Carolina University and University of Alabama, respectively.

“Both Jeremy and Matt have been tireless volunteer workers within our basketball program for the past two years,” said Odom. “Each has contributed significantly to the success of our program and I am pleased to see their work recognized with their acceptance of a full-time position at other Division I institutions. They are smart, great young men who will no doubt be excellent coaches. I look forward to following their careers in the years to come.”

Putting together back-to-back 20 win seasons with Shyatt and Parke, USC was 23-11 and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2003-04. During the 2004-05 season, USC finished 20-11 and won the NIT Championship.

Shyatt, the oldest son of former Clemson coach and University of Florida assistant coach Larry Shyatt, enrolled at USC after earning his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Clemson in 2003 and is completing a master’s in advertising.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be a part of the coaching staff here at ECU,” said Shyatt. “I’ve only heard great things about ECU and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work here. I think I’ve gotten the best of both worlds; a great place to live and great coaches to work alongside.”

“We’re very excited to have Jeremy complete our staff,” stated ECU head coach and former USC assistant Ricky Stokes. ” As the son of a coach, he’s grown up around college basketball and has a good understanding of everything that is involved with it. Jeremy has a great basketball mind and gets along well with players. He did an outstanding job at South Carolina and I expect he’ll do the same with all the many hats we’ll ask him to wear.”

Shyatt served as Director of Boys and Girls Summer Day Camps with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers the past three years. Shyatt earned a varsity letter as a freshman on the Clemson basketball team in 1999-2000. The following season he began his coaching career as a student assistant coach for the next three seasons. He was named to the All-ACC Honor Roll in 2000.

“Matt is a very bright young coach who has a tremendous amount of energy,” said Alabama head coach Gottfried. “He comes to our program highly recommended, and I”m very excited that he has joined our staff. I look for him to be a very important aspect of our program on a day to day basis with a wide range of responsibility.”

Matthew Parke has been hired as the Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Alabama.

Parke, 30, is a Bangor, Maine, native. He’s a 1997 graduate of Colby College and earned his Masters Degree in business administration from USC in 2005. His basketball background includes being head coach at Massachusetts’ Derby Academy from 1997-99 and Oak Ridge (North Carolina) Military Academy from 1999-2001. He was assistant coach at Guilford College from 2001-2003 before joining South Carolina’s staff in 2003.