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Williams inks two-year deal
Former Appalachian State quarterback Richie Williams signed a two-year contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

Williams, who is the back-up quarterback to Casey Printers, completed 80-of-130 passes last year for 852 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 169 yards on 32 carries.

“Richie is a talented, young quarterback and a tremendous athlete who fits our offensive situation very well,” Hamilton general manager Bob O’Billovich said on the team’s Web site. “His playing style and abilities are similar to Casey Printers’, which provides our offense with excellent consistency.”

Williams, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound Camden, S.C. native, signed with the Tiger-Cats in 2006 after leading Appalachian State to the first of its three-straight national championships in 2005.

ASU hires Pendleton to coach soccer
Appalachian State hired Shaun Pendleton, NCAA Division II’s all-time winningest men’s soccer coach, to coach men’s soccer at ASU.

The Sheffield, England native has compiled a 320-53-13 record in 19 seasons as a head coach, including two years at the University of Charleston (W. Va.) and the past 17 campaigns at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. His .846 career winning percentage ranked tops all-time among NCAA Division II coaches.

At Lynn, Pendleton compiled a 293-42-12 overall record and led the Fighting Knights to a pair of national championships with a 22-0-2 record at the NAIA level in 1991.

Since Lynn joined the NCAA in 1996, Pendleton took the Knights to the postseason in 9-of-12 seasons and reached the national semifinals four times. Overall, he directed the Knights to the postseason play in 14 of his 17 years at the helm, where he put together a 38-12-1 record (.755).

Under his tutelage, 46 Lynn players earned all-America status and, perhaps even more impressively, 23 garnered all-America Scholar recognition.

As a player, Pendleton was a two-time all-America defender at the University of Akron in 1984 and ‘85. He also earned academic all-America plaudits in 1985 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from Akron that same year.