The Eastern women’s soccer team is still in the process of selecting an assistant coach.

Eastern interim athletic director Ken Baker said an offer has been made to fill the opening, but he could not give out any more specific details.

Eastern head women’s soccer coach Tim Nowak said the team’s goal is to have the position filled by April 1.

The position has remained open since the departure of former assistant coach Beth Liesen.

Liesen took a teaching position at Crete-Monee pre-school in the Chicago suburbs after coaching at Eastern from 2005-07.

Nowak said the search committee was pleased with the candidates it had.

“We’re excited about the pool of candidates we have,” Nowak said. “We think we’ll end up with a great coach.”

Nowak also said the team has responded well to the opening, and it has had no effect on offseason preparations. He cited the team’s leadership as the contributing factor behind its stability during the period of the vacancy.

The finalists for the Eastern’s football team have been announced.

Former Eastern offensive coordinator Jorge Munoz left to be the quarterbacks and passing coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette (a Football Bowl Subdivision team).

This left the Panthers without an offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach.

Eastern defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Roc Bellantoni said former Eastern quarterbacks coach Roy Wittke visited Eastern on Monday and Tuesday, and is a finalist for the offensive coordinator position.

Wittke’s most recent coaching position was as an assistant at Northern Illinois.

Eastern also has two other finalists currently on the coaching staff. Offensive line coach Eastern associate athletic director John Smith said Jeff Hoover, a former offensive coordinator at Portland State, interviewed Tuesday and could interview again today. Smith said Mike Lynch, who is in his third year as wide receivers coach, will be interviewing for the position Thursday and Friday.

After the interviews are conducted, the search committee will report its findings, and make a decision concerning who will fill the vacancy.

Eastern defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Roc Bellantoni said the team would have the position filled sooner rather than later.

“We hope to have this figured out in the next week or so,” said Bellantoni. “We’re just anxious to get it filled.”

Bellantoni also said Wittke was the favorite for the position, while Smith said he was more open to the team considering all applicants closely.

“I don’t think there’s a favorite,” Smith said.

Smith said 0f the 75 applicants for the position, four finalists were selected, but Steve Engelhart, the head coach at Rose-Hulman, withdew his application.

Smith said experience was the separating factor between the applicant pool and the finalists. Smith said the fact all three candidates coached at Eastern shows strength in past personnel decisions.

“It shows the quality of the people we have hired in the past,” Smith said.

According to Bellantoni, the remaining finalists have limited experience running a spread offense.

Eastern head coach Bob Spoo announced his intentions for Eastern to adopt the spread offense during National Signing Day on Feb. 6.

However, Smith said the spread offense is “something (the football team is) going to investigate.”

JC Clark can be reached at 581-7944 or at jrclark2@eiu.edu.