This was C.J. Woollum's 18th year in charge of the Christopher Newport basketball program and an awful lot of those years have been very successful.

Take the 2000-01 season for example when CNU opened it’s gorgeous, new, Freeman Center, one of the top basketball venues in all of Division III. The season was punctuated with a great 25-4 season with the Captains reaching, and hosting, the NCAA Elite 8.

From the excitement of opening the beautiful new Freeman Center, to the drama of an entire set of NCAA Tournament games all played at home, last year will go down in CNU history as something special.

Not that special occurrences are anything new to Christopher Newport basketball. The program has become one of the most respected in the nation under Woollum. The Captains have appeared in 13 of the last 15 NCAA Division III Tournaments, and are a constant factor in the national polls.

The last five years have been the best ever at CNU, as the Captains have compiled a 121-20 record, with 20-win seasons becoming the norm in Newport News.

It wasn't always that way at CNU. Although basketball has always been a successful sport, it was when Woollum took over as just the third coach in CNU history that things really took off. After a 13-14 season in his first year at the helm, the 1984-85 season, the Captains soared to 19-11 the very next year and won the school's first Dixie Conference championship and NCAA Tournament bid. Since that time CNU has never gone two consecutive years without NCAA play, and in fact, has failed to make the tournament just twice.

For a total now of 18 seasons Woollum has compiled a 367-140 coaching record, one of the best in Division III. That's a .724 winning percentage, but the 1990s were even more amazing. During the decade the Captains were 239-68, a .779 mark.

Over all those years Woollum has helped develop some of the top individual talents in Division III. Eight players have won All-American honors with Woollum as coach and 11 have gone on to have professional careers throughout the world. The best known is Lamont Strothers, a second round NBA draft choice in 1991 who played for both the Portland Trailblazers and Dallas Mavericks and has been a star in several foreign countries.

But Woollum's success has not been limited to basketball. Until several years ago he was also head golf coach for CNU. His teams earned six NCAA bids in an eight year span and had at least one individual participate at the national championships in 12 of 13 years. He had one individual national champion, Scott Scovil, and a winner of the most prestigious regular season tournament, the Gordin Collegiate Classic, in Scott Causby.

Add to all that the fact that he has served as Athletic Director since 1987, has been a Congressman in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and a member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, and you have one very busy, and very successful, individual.

He is a native of Alexandria, Va., and holds a Bachelors Degree from Kentucky Wesleyan and a Masters from Marshall.