Steve Payne, who has served as the associate head coach of the Tennessee Tech men’s basketball program for the past nine years, will enter the 2011-12 season as the Golden Eagle head coach. Payne, 42, will take over for Mike Sutton, who announced his retirement from the position following the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.

Payne came to Tech in 2002 as assistant coach under Sutton, and has been the top assistant on the staff for nine years, rising to the post of associate head coach.

Although he filled the role as Tech's top assistant coach, Payne found himself vaulted into a much more demanding role when Sutton was sidelined for the early portion of the 2005 after being stricken with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

With Payne handling the day-to-day operations of the program, the Golden Eagles raced out to an 8-2 start with losses at Dayton and Cincinnati. Payne continued to handle a major portion of the coaching duties for the balance of the year, helping to lead Tech to an 18-11 record and the semifinals of the OVC Tournament. Following the 2005-06 season, Payne was recognized for the role he played in Tech’s success while Sutton began his recovery. He was named OVC Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com and CBSsportsline.com. Both awards, which are usually given to head coaches, were unusual — but well-deserved — recognition for the assistant coach. Payne was also listed as one of 15 finalists for the 2006 Hugh Durham Award honoring the mid-major Coach of the Year.

During this past year alone, Payne - who was named the 2011 Top Assistant Coach in the Ohio Valley Conference by FoxSports.com - headed the Golden Eagles on two Ohio Valley Conference road trips in Sutton’s absence, and guided the team to three wins in four games. In his nine years, Payne has helped Tech post 149 wins and two of the program’s five 20-win seasons, hitting that mark in 2002-03 and again this past winter. He also saw the team to the program's fifth ever post-season appearance, when the Golden Eagles accepted an invitation to the 2011 College Insider's Tournament.

Payne was also recognized in July 2009 as one of the Top 25 Mid-Major assistant basketball coaches in the nation, according to CollegeInsider.com.

Payne stepped forward to take on a major role in directing the day-to-day operation of the Golden Eagle program during Sutton’s recovery from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. At the end of the team’s 2006-2007, 19-12 campaign, Payne was recognized twice for the part he played in the team’s success.

Prior to his arrival at Tech, Payne was the acting head coach at Frank Phillips Junior College in Borger, Texas. Coming to the Golden Eagle program in 2002, he could already boast over a decade of coaching experience.

Before he took over the reins at Frank Phillips Junior College, Payne was an associate head coach for four years under Happy Osborne at Georgetown College in Kentucky. During that time, the Tigers compiled a 128-22 record and three conference championships in four years. The Tigers won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship in 1997-98. Georgetown also finished second in the national tournament in 1999-00 and advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” in 1998-99.

Payne also served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northwestern (La.) State University where he helped lead NSU to its best conference finish in a decade. He was also an assistant coach at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where he was recruiting coordinator and helped lead the team to back-to-back 20-win seasons. Payne was director of player development at Union, and that included the coaching of two NAIA all-Americans. He also coached at Knox Central High School in Barbourville, Ky.

He is a graduate of Russell County High School in Russell Springs, Ky., and earned his bachelor’s degree from Union College in Barbourville, Ky. in 1990.

Payne and his wife, Kelli, have three children — sons Parker (11) and Paxton (9), and daughter Abigail (6).

National champion NAIA head coach Happy Osborne joins the Tennessee Tech staff as associate head coach for the 2011-12 season. Osborne comes to Tech from Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky., where he posted a 456-84 career record and led the Tigers to the 1998 national championship. At Tech, he will be involved in recruiting, coaching, developing players and cultivating and maintaining relationships in the community.

Golden Eagle head coach Steve Payne served as an assistant on Osborne's staff at Georgetown from 1996-2000, where the two became close friends. In the four years the pair coached together, Georgetown won 26, 37, 30 and 35 game for a total of 123 wins in four years. They played in two national championship games, winning one.

A native of Lynch, Ky., Osborne began his tenure at Georgetown as an assistant coach in 1980, serving for 14 years before being promoted to the head position in 1996. In his 15 years as head coach, Osborne has been named the Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year six times, won nine of the last 12 MSC titles, and posted at least 25 wins each season. He holds the distinction of being the fastest coach at any college basketball level to post 100 career wins. He holds the same distinction among coaches who have won 400 games.

Due in large part to his leadership, Georgetown is the all-time winningest men's basketball program in NAIA and has made a record 20 consecutive NAIA Tournament appearances. More than 40 Georgetown players have gone on to professional careers overseas, many of whom played under Osborne.

Most recently, Osborne led the Tigers to a 32-5 record and the Fab Four, the NAIA national semifinals, in 2010-11.

He played high school basketball at Lynch High School, where his father was the school superintendent before going on to serve as a student assistant at both Pikeville College and Morehead State.

He is married to Bobbi Osborne and the couple has one daughter.

After serving one year as the Director of Basketball Operations for Golden Eagle basketball in 2005-06, Russ Willemsen begins his seventh season as assistant coach for the Golden Eagles and eighth overall on staff.

Willemsen, 29, came to Tech after serving as an assistant coach at Lee University.
He handles a wide variety of duties on coach Steve Payne's staff, including on-floor coaching and off-campus recruiting. He is also heavily involved in the academic progress of the Golden Eagles and is involved with the players on a day-to-day basis.

Enthusiastic and knowledgeable, Willemsen handled team travel, film exchange and daily office administration during his year as Director of Basketball Operations. He also worked with the summer camps.

A native of Rushville, N.Y., Willemsen played basketball and football at Marcus Whitman High School before enrolling at Lee University in 1999. He served as team manager for three years for coach Rick Hughes’ team, then moved up to a student assistant coaching position in his junior year.

In 2004, Willemsen earned his bachelor’s degree from Lee in physical education and history, with minors in religion and coaching.

He was named an assistant coach for the Flames for the 2004-05 season, where his duties included on-floor coaching and individual workouts, recruiting, scouting, as well as handling the summer camps and overseeing the team’s community service efforts.

At Lee, he was part of teams that reached the NAIA Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and he worked with five NAIA All-Americans during his six years on the staff.

Willemsen completed his graduate degree in leadership and received his Master’s degree in May 2007. He was married to the former Sarah Dolle on May 8, 2010.

David Boyden enters his first year as an assistant coach for the Golden Eagles, coming to Tech in June 2011 from his alma mater, Western Kentucky University, where he helped coach the Hilltoppers to an NCAA appearance and a Sun Belt Conference championship.

Boyden will be involved in all facets of the program's day-to-day operations as well as working primarily on the development of Golden Eagle post players.

A former Sun Belt All-Conference performer for the Hilltoppers, Boyden returned to WKU with first-year head coach Ken McDonald - who was an assistant at WKU during Boyden's playing career - in 2008. Boyden's return to the Hill as part of the new staff helped result in a 25-win season, the Sun Belt Conference East Division and Tournament Championships, and a trip to the second round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

His career with Tech will not be Boyden's first venture into the OVC, however, as he returned to WKU as a coach after serving as an assistant coach at OVC rival school, Eastern Kentucky, from 2005-08 under head coach Jeff Neubauer.

At EKU, Boyden helped the Colonels advance to the 2007 NCAA Tournament after claiming the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship. In his three seasons at Eastern, the Colonels finished with a .500 or better record in league play including a 13-7 mark in the OVC in 2006-07, going 21-12 overall and earning a berth in the conference tournament.

Prior to his time spent at Eastern Kentucky and following his graduation from from WKU in 2003, Boyden joined former Hilltopper head coach Dennis Felton on the staff at Georgia. He was an administrative assistant during the 2003-04 season before ascending to director of basketball operations in 2004-05.

As a player, Boyden lettered at WKU from 2000-03, helping the Toppers win 24 or more games each of his final three seasons as they claimed three straight Sun Belt Conference East Division and Tournament Championships and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for a school record tying three straight years.

He started 123 of 125 contests played in, ranking second all-time in Hilltopper history in career starts. Logging 3,283 minutes of action, Boyden is sixth all-time at WKU. In four years, the Richmond, Va. native scored 1,167 points, which stands 27th on the career WKU list.

Boyden was named to the Sun Belt All-Conference First-Team as a junior after averaging 11.3 ppg and 6.1 rpg, and was a Second-Team All-Conference selection his senior season after posting averages of 12.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Boyden was also chosen to the 2003 Sun Belt All-Tournament team after helping lead WKU to its third-straight title.

A native of Richmond, Va., Boyden currently resides in Cookeville. He joins a staff that also includes associate head coach Happy Osborne and assistant coach Russ Willemsen.

Charles Newton believes he still has a lot to accomplish at Tennessee Tech. The only difference is that now Newton, a senior on the Golden Eagle basketball team last year, is trading his jersey for a suit.

Head coach Steve Payne announced Newton’s hiring as the program’s Director of Basketball Operations in September, bringing him back to his alma mater less than one year removed from his playing career.

Newton, a native of Lexington, Ky., played two seasons for the Golden Eagles before graduating from Tech this past spring. He saw action in 15 games as a senior and averaged 2.3 points per outing, shooting 68.8 percent from the field — the highest field-goal percentage of any Golden Eagle. He converted three-pointers at a 55.6 percent clip, going 5-for-9 from long range. His team-high 23 points led Tech to a 106-44 win over Crowley’s Ridge on Dec. 30, 2010.

During his tenure with the Golden Eagles, Newton was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court for his strong academics, and received the team’s John P. Hendrix Leadership Award. He also participated in a Reach USA foreign ministries program in which he traveled to China to play basketball with other players from the Lexington area. 

In high school, Newton led Lexington Catholic in steals and assists and was team captain.

Newton comes from a rich family background in coaching and athletic administration — his grandfather, C.M. Newton played at Kentucky and served as head basketball coach at Alabama and Vanderbilt. He later became athletic director at Kentucky, where he hired Rick Pitino to lead the basketball program. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. Newton’s father, Martin Newton, served as the Director of Basketball Operations at Kentucky and is now the athletic director at Samford.

(Left to Right): Joey Meredith, Seth Bruton, Kris Collett, Ty Young