Sports Camps Staff 

Director of Sports Camps & Head Volleyball Coach

Kurt Matthews 

The Oglethorpe University athletics department is pleased to announce the hiring of Kurt Matthews to the position of Head Volleyball Coach. Matthews joins the Oglethorpe athletics family after several years of coaching and promoting volleyball at the club level as well as on college campuses.

Matthews, who officially begins his tenure July 1st, spent 3 years as an Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas and one year with Piedmont College.
 
While at Arkansas, he was mentored by 2-Time SEC Coach of the Year, Chris Poole. During his tenure with the Lady'Backs, the program achieved 3 NCAA appearances as well as winning 3 SEC Western Division Championships. Kurt primarily worked with the Libero's, team & individual defense as well as the setters.
 
At Piedmont College he coached under 2-Time Great South Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, Katie O'Brien and was a part of a staff that led the program to it's first ever GSAC Championship. Coach Matthews primarily was in charge of team training during practices.  
 
As a NCAA Division I & III assistant coach, Coach Matthews has a record of 98-37 with a winning % of .721.
 
Coach Matthews is also the former Owner/Director for the Ozark Junior Olympic program located out of Arkansas. Under his direction the fledgling club expanded from 11 returning players to well over 400 members in his four years and gained a national reputation. Ozark produced the state's first ever Top 30 recruit, members of the National High Performance Programs, numerous prep All Americans, as well as producing a number of Division I, II, and III performers. Ozark placed athletes to The University of Arkansas, Kansas State, Mississippi State, University of Hawaii, Arkansas State, as well as a host of other programs. Ozark was featured on www.prepvolleyball.com for its growth under his direction.
 
Matthews has been actively involved in the Atlanta Volleyball Community for well over 18 years including managing various Junior Olympic Volleyball programs, administering adult leagues & tournaments, participating on competitive adult USA Volleyball Men's A/AA teams, and hosting a number of camps/clinics for both children and adults. He has coached numerous college camps including University of Arkansas, University of Alabama, Emory University, and East Tennessee State University.
 
Coach Matthews is a graduate of Georgia Southern University with a degree in Recreation Administration and currently resides in Berkeley Lake, GA.

Coaching Staff

Head Basketball Coach: Ron Sattele

Coach Sattele begins his 5th season at the helm of the Women’s Basketball Program at Oglethorpe University. After two consecutive 21 victory seasons and two invitations to the NCAA National Tournament, last season was the most successful in the history of Stormy Petrel basketball finishing with a 27-7 record and earning a third consecutive bid to the NCAA National Tournament. The Stormy Petrels made it to the Final Four before losing in the semi-finals and ended the season ranked 6th in the nation out of 434 NCAA D-III schools. Oglethorpe competes in the very prestigious Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. (SCAC)

Prior to taking the head coaching position at Oglethorpe, Coach Sattele was an assistant coach at Oglethorpe for two seasons.

Sattele came to Oglethorpe from St. Pius X High School in Atlanta, Ga. While head coach at St. Pius X for three years, the school accumulated two sub-region and one region championship, one sweet sixteen and one final eight appearance in the AAAA state tournament.  

"Dedication, hard work with a touch of fun,” says Sattele is his philosophy towards whatever he does. Coach Sattele is a graduate of Villanova University and has been married forever (just kidding, 44 years) to Gerry Sattele and has four married children and 10 grandchildren. Hobbies include auto racing and ocean sailing.

Head Soccer Coach: Jon Akin

Jon grew up in Pensacola, Florida where he attended Pensacola Catholic High School. In 1995, he attended Saint Leo University as a freshman. Jon was named first team All-Conference and All-South. In 1996, Jon scored 28 goals and had 16 assists to lead the nation in scoring. He was All-American, All-South, and All-Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year. In 1997, Jon was First-Team All-American, All-South, and All-Sunshine State Conference. In 1998, he ended his career at Saint Leo finishing second all-time in career goals with 61 and first time in assists with 45. In 1998, Jon spent 3 months with Independiente of the Argentinian 1st Division.

In 1999, Jon was drafted by The Charleston Battery in the first round of the A-League draft. In 2000, Jon played in all 32 games for the Battery, who lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs to the eventual champs, Rochester Raging Rhinos. During the 2000 off-season, Jon played with Kilkinney City of The Irish Premier League.

In 2001, Jon played 26 games for The Battery before losing to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the playoffs. He began the 2002 season with The Charleston Battery before being traded to The Atlanta Silverbacks, where Jon played 20 games.

In 2006, Jon was inducted into the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame.  Here is what the SSC had to say about Jon: 

Jon Akin was named a two-time All-America soccer player at Saint Leo University, Jon Akin is one of the most prolific soccer players to ever don the green and gold.  Akin was highly decorated at both the conference and regional levels, capturing All-SSC first-team honors four times and All-Region first team honors three times.  The 1996 SSC men's soccer player of the year, Akin remains the only Saint Leo student-athlete, male or female, to be recognized as SSC Athlete of the Year.  He earned that honor following the 1996-97 academic year.  Akin led the nation with 28 goals and 72 total points in 1996, capping off a prolific career in which he ranks second all-time at Saint Leo in goals and points, while also holding the school record for career assists.  Akin ranks in the conference top-10 in numerous single-season and career statistical categories.  Akin was a two-time Saint Leo University scholar-athlete of the year, was previously selected to the SSC Silver Anniversary men's soccer team in 2003 and has also been previously inducted into the Saint Leo University Hall of Fame.  He is currently the head men's and women's soccer coach at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.  Akin becomes the second men's soccer player from Saint Leo to earn induction into the SSC Hall of Fame.

Head Men's Basketball Coach: Phillip Ponder

Philip Ponder begins his sixth season as head coach and 12th season overall at Oglethorpe.  When he was named head coach in March of 2003, he became one of youngest head coach’s in the school’s basketball history.  His first five seasons have seen the Stormy Petrels making great progress towards becoming one of the top teams in the conference. 

Having taken over a team that had finished last or next to last for four consecutive seasons, he immediately turned the Petrels fortunes around, leading the team all the way to the conference championship game in his first year at the helm.  In his second season, the Petrels won their most games in six years and achieved their highest regular season conference finish in seven years.  In his fourth year, the Petrels finished with their most wins and best record in eight years, and last year, the squad finished with their most wins in 10 years and their best conference finish in 13 years. After only five years at the helm, Ponder already ranks third in career victories for a head basketball coach at Oglethorpe.

He has introduced an exciting up-tempo style of basketball that has helped the Stormy Petrels lead the conference in scoring, three-pointers made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, turnover margin, assist to turnover ratio, steals, and turnovers forced, while breaking numerous school and conference records.  The style of play is a style that players love to play.  In the five year period that Ponder has been head coach, Oglethorpe has scored more points, made more three pointers, forced more turnovers, and recorded more steals than any team in the conference. This new, unique, and exciting style, as well as the renewed winning (41-21 at home in his tenure) has helped attendance almost triple since he took over.

Head Baseball Coach: Dan Giordano

Dan Giordano begins his fifth full season as the Head Coach of the Stormy Petrel baseball program. Giordano is no stranger to the program as he played for the Petrels from 1999-2002. He was hired as the pitching coach upon graduation and has been involved in several camps, clinics and showcases held at Oglethorpe.

Giordano was named interim coach in March of 2004 and led the team to a fourth place finish at the SCAC Championships held at Oglethorpe. Their fourth place finish is the best SCAC finish in the history of the program. Two players were named to the All-Region South 2nd Team and three players made the All-SCAC Team.

In 2005, Giordano took over the program full time in February and inherited a small squad of 12 players. Despite the lack of depth the Petrels battled throughout the year and managed to finish just three games out of playoff contention. In 2006, the Petrels went 11-29, almost doubling the wins from the previous year and fell one game short of postseason play.

The Petrels have qualified for the postseason the last two seasons and look to make it three straight in 2009. The Petrels in 2009 look to shed the label of a rebuilding program with a strong showing in the upcoming campaign.

Since Giordano took over the program the Petrels have had elevne All-SCAC members and two ABCA All-South All-Americans.

Head Tennis Coach: Peter Howell

Coach Howell, an Atlanta native, brings over 35 years of tennis teaching/coaching experience in the Atlanta area, having worked with over 10 former All-Americans during his career. He has been a member of the USPTA for over 30 years. As a player, he was ranked #5 by the USTA for 6 years and #1 in GA for over 10 years. He has been selected GA Professional of the Year four times.

Coach Howell was recently inducted into the GA. Professional Tennis Hall of Fame. He was MVP and Captain of his Vanderbilt TennisTeam in 1970-71. He will direct a staff consisting of other tennis professionals, coaches, and college players who will actively work with each junior player. Coach Howell is hands on in leading drills, strategy sessions, and critiquing match play.

Head Lacrosse Coach: Jay Gardiner

Jay Gardiner comes to Oglethorpe as the Director of Athletics from Miami University (Ohio), where he served as the Associate AD for Development.  Jay worked as an Associate at Tulane before that and as an AD at Bellarmine University (Kentucky) and St. Mary’s College (Maryland).  Jay received his BA from Western Maryland College (Now called McDaniel College) in 1979 and his Masters in Education from Bowie State University (Maryland) in 1988.