July 7, 2004

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner has completed his coaching staff with the hiring of Ronnie Dean and Toby Lane.

"I am extremely happy to be able to add two quality coaches like Dean and Lane to my staff that also includes Robert Guster who we hired earlier," Garner said. "This will be a staff that concentrates on recruiting. I am confident they will be able to recruit players that will make us competitive for the Ohio Valley Conference title year in and year out."

Dean comes to Southeast after serving last season as an assistant under Hugh Durham at Jacksonville University in Florida. He is a 14-year veteran of college basketball and is nationally known as a top recruiter having previously coached and recruited at Montana, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton. He also coached at Barton County Community College Lamar CC and Howard College.

A native of Charleston, Mo., Dean played high school basketball with former Southeast players Jewell Crawford and James Campbell. He played college basketball at Jefferson CC and at Harris-Stowe.

"I am excited about returning home," Dean said. "I've followed Southeast Missouri basketball my entire life. I've always had a special place in my heart for the great tradition of Southeast basketball. I look forward to working with a great coach like Gary Garner and I look forward to recruiting the best basketball student-athletes ever at Southeast so we can move back to the top of the OVC and a make a return to the NCAA tournament on a regular basis."

"Dean has proven to be an outstanding recruiter," Garner said. "He has a reputation of being one of the better recruiters in the country and he has a good knowledge of the game. He also has always had a good rapport with players both on and off the court."

Lane has been an assistant at the University of Oklahoma since 2002 and previously served as an assistant at Long Beach State, Central Oklahoma and Neosho County CC. He was head basketball coach at Goessel High School in Goessel, Kan., from 1993-1996.

A graduate of Wichita State, Lane has worked for the past seasons under Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson. "It is a pleasure to be at Southeast Missouri State," he said. "I learned a lot from Coach Sampson and I hope to bring what I learned to Southeast. It will be great to work with Coach Garner. I look forward to learning a lot from him and I look forward to making contributions to the basketball program.

"The Oklahoma program was built on toughness, playing hard, leadership and chemistry. I learned to work with video in game preparation and how to organize practices and recruiting. I can't wait to get started."

"Toby Lane comes to our program with a great work ethic," Garner said. "He is very organized and has great computer and video skills. Lane has a good knowledge of the game and really works well with players on the floor.

Dean and Lane both began at Southeast on July 6 and will leave on a recruiting trip on July 7.