China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 40,400 shares, an increase of 288.5% from the August 15th total of 10,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.5 days. Approximately 3.1% of the companys stock are sold short.

Shares of COE traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $6.88. The companys stock had a trading volume of 13,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,781. China Online Education Group has a 12-month low of $3.68 and a 12-month high of $9.52. The companys 50 day moving average is $6.15 and its 200 day moving average is $6.16.

China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $51.48 million during the quarter.

Separately, ValuEngine upgraded China Online Education Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st.

About China Online Education Group

China Online Education Group, through its subsidiaries, provides online English language education services to students in the People's Republic of China and the Philippines. It operates online and mobile education platforms that enable students to take live interactive English lessons with international foreign teachers.

Further Reading: Overbought

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Short Interest in China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) Expands By 288.5% - Riverton Roll

Hello, Northern Arizona! I hope everyone is enjoying their fall! This month, I want to talk about how we talk about education. The Red for Ed movement last year made teacher pay a priority in Arizona, though it still remains one of the lowest in the country. In my meetings with those who work in our schools teachers, but also counselors, aides, specialists Ive seen that the issues in our schools go far beyond teachers. Schools are an entire community within our communities, one where everyone works together to help our children grow and learn.

Investment in education begins early in childhood. Quality pre-K is out of reach for far too many families. Thats why cities around the state (including Flagstaff) are spearheading initiatives to increase access to quality pre-K.

K-12 schools need well-paid teachers, but did you know that 25% of a students success relies on having an effective principal? For this reason, the City of Flagstaff and my office are partnering with a wide variety of institutions to invest in FUSDs principals and their professional development.

When evaluating education, we look at several key indicators, one of which is third grade reading levels. Across Northern Arizona, the majority of our kids are not reading at grade level when they leave third grade. LAUNCH Flagstaff is coordinating efforts to implement a coordinated strategy to improve literacy with a focus on early childhood literacy programs.

These are all promising initiatives but there is so much more to be done. One of the most distressing facts about Arizona schools is that we have both the largest ratio of counselors to students and the highest number of foster kids. Children need support and guidance to succeed. School counselors along with families, teachers and the broader community create an environment where kids can focus on their studies.

Aides and specialists are often not considered teachers, but do vitally important work. Speech therapists, special education experts and countless others make sure that all our kids have the opportunity and the support they need to succeed. These professionals also deserve fair compensation and should be included in debates over teacher pay.

Finally, studies from the Center for the Future of Arizona show us that the majority of young adults will need some sort of additional training after high school, whether that means trade school, community college, a four-year degree, an apprenticeship or the military. Increasing access to post-secondary training and education would help not only our young adults, but entire economies. Yavapai Community College has been instrumental in helping to build the wine industry in the Verde Valley, bringing in millions in investment and industry to a largely rural area. Investing in community colleges throughout the state could support economies that dont have the advantage of a large metropolitan area or a research university.

I have always said that an institutions budget reflects our values. Its one of the reasons I am so proud of the initiatives weve undertaken locallyto support education, families, students and by extension, the entire local economy. Together, we can build the Arizona we want. FBN

By Coral Evans

Coral Evans is the mayor of Flagstaff.

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Prioritizing Education in Arizona - Flagstaff Business & Online News | Northern Arizona Local Newspaper - Flagstaff Business News

Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE:STG) and BioHiTech Global (NASDAQ:BHTG) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Sunlands Online Education Group and BioHiTech Global, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

BioHiTech Global has a consensus price target of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 142.42%. Given BioHiTech Globals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe BioHiTech Global is more favorable than Sunlands Online Education Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

25.9% of Sunlands Online Education Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.5% of BioHiTech Global shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.9% of BioHiTech Global shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Sunlands Online Education Group has a beta of 2.68, indicating that its stock price is 168% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioHiTech Global has a beta of 2.37, indicating that its stock price is 137% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Sunlands Online Education Group and BioHiTech Globals net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sunlands Online Education Group and BioHiTech Globals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

BioHiTech Global has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sunlands Online Education Group.

About Sunlands Online Education Group

Sunlands Technology Group, through its subsidiaries, provides online education services in the People's Republic of China. The company offers various degree- and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses, including preparation courses for the self-taught higher education examination (STE) for learners pursuing associate diplomas or bachelor's degrees, as well as for the entrance examinations of master of business administration programs. Its STE courses cover 18 majors, including Chinese language and literature, law, pre-school education, project management, marketing, English, human resource management, business administration, business management, modern corporate governance, finance, financial management, advertising, accounting, energy management, administrative management, international trade, and computer information management. The company also provides professional certification preparation course offerings that cover various industries and professions, such as accounting, human resources, teaching, and finance. As of December 31, 2017, it had approximately 1,750 self-developed learning outcome trees covering 123,000 knowledge points. The company was formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group. Sunlands Technology Group was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

About BioHiTech Global

BioHiTech Global, Inc. provides an environmentally friendly solution for food waste disposal. The Company, through its subsidiaries, BioHiTech America, LLC and BioHiTech Europe Limited, offers its customers various technologies integrating technological, biological and mechanical engineering solutions for the control, reduction and/or reuse of organic waste. It has a distribution license to sell, lease, use, distribute and manufacture the Eco-Safe Digester product. The Eco-Safe Digester is a data-driven, network-based mechanical/biological technology, which transforms food waste into nutrient-neutral water that can be disposed of via conventional sanitary sewer systems. The Eco-Safe Digester may be used by businesses in food service, hospitality, healthcare, government, conference centers, education centers or stadiums. Its Internet enabled system, the BioHiTech Cloud, streams data from the digesters, collects information from system users and integrates business application data.

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Head-To-Head Contrast: Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE:STG) & BioHiTech Global (NYSE:BHTG) - Riverton Roll

Carrie Jane Williamson has been named Associate Superintendent for the Department of Catholic Education at the Diocese of Savannah. Williamson began her work as Assistant Superintendent for the Office of Catholic Schools in July 2013 and has served with dedication and commitment in Catholic education since 2002.

Effective July 1, 2019, Williamson has assumed additional responsibilities in the Office of Catholic Schools. Serving as an extension of the Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Williamson will provide leadership, direction, and supervision for the continued efficient operational and academic management of Catholic schools. The Associate Superintendent is the primary administrator for Catholic elementary and secondary educational institutes that are under the direct authority of the Diocese of Savannah and the Office of the Bishop.

As she has throughout her term as Assistant Superintendent, Williamson will act as thought-partner, problem-solver, and change-agent to internal and external stakeholders with an unwavering commitment to getting the job done. She will be responsible for creating and modeling a culture of high expectations and providing ongoing support and oversight to school building leaders in their work to form disciples of Jesus Christ.

Williamson commented that she will continue to serve as an educational leader and model to all stakeholders in accomplishing the mission of the Diocese of Savannah Department of Catholic Education Office of Catholic Schools. I look forward to the challenge of serving our community.

With Bachelors degrees in Business, Williamson has earned two Masters degrees in Middles School Math and Language Arts Education and Educational Administration. Her love for Catholic education and willingness to answer the call to the vocation of Catholic education is evident in her collaboration and determination to lead others in achieving the mission.

Michelle Kroll is Director Of Catholic Education & Superintendent Of Catholic Schools.

Original post:
Associate Superintendent for the Department of Catholic Education named - Southern Cross

Merck and Klick HealthVersed on HPV

Young people aged 15-24 are notoriously hard to reach. But because they account for nearly half of the 14 million new HPV infections each year, Merck knew it needed an original and unexpected way to talk with them. Most of the time, HPV clears on its own. But if it doesnt, it can lead to certain cancers and diseases.

The campaigns objective is to raise awareness around the potential cancer-causing effects of HPV and inform a generation how to protect themselves.

The Versed on HPV effort forgoes the usual brochures, banners and PSAs, instead curating original art, music and events, all with a strong message: HPV can lead to certain cancers protect yourself by talking to your doctor.

Inspired by a streetwear marketing approach rather than a typical healthcare playbook, the campaign relies exclusively on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. Instead of billboards, it uses hand-painted murals and campus walls. Its not on the radio, but at music festivals. And to show how little most people in the target audience know about it, it used a YouTube series of man on the street videos.

The campaign kicked off a massive mural in Brooklyn. And in a pop-up stunt at the tail-end of New York Fashion Week, it featured models in Versed on HPV gear.

In just a year, the campaign delivered 3.8 million Snapchat swipe ups, 374 million Instagram impressions, 276 million YouTube video views and 4.9 million unique visitors to its website. It reached 133% of its awareness-raising goal.

See original here:
Gold | Disease Education Campaign, 2019 - MM&M Awards - MM&M - Medical Marketing and Media

However, since 2017, none of these decisions have been reviewed by the agency with oversight of accreditations, the NSW Education Standards Authority, its director of teaching standards Lyn Kirkby told a parliamentary inquiry this week.

If teachers treated students the way they're treated by NESA, they would be sacked.

"Unfortunately we had a problem with our online system and applications then moved offline and so during the whole of 2017 and 2018 and to this day ... we've been doing a lot of compliance checks rather than quality checks," Ms Kirkby told the inquiry into measurement and outcome-based funding in NSW schools.

Ms Kirkby said the system "will be moving back online shortly" and NESA will resume doing random quality checks on decisions by the thousands of individual principals and school bodies.

She said NESA will also go back and randomly audit decisions made in the past three years.

John Quessy, secretary of the independent education union in NSW and the ACT, said that the lack of quality checks meant there was no real understanding of the minimum teaching standard that was being implemented across different schools and sectors.

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"It's fair to say that NESA for the past three years have done no monitoring for quality or consistency in the process," Mr Quessy said.

"Nobody knows what the standard is. What happens in school X for somebody to be able to satisfy the requirements, there's no evidence that that would satisfy requirements in school Y.

"You can compare it to something like the HSC; we have a panel who set the standard and train everyone else to mark at the standard and then check for consistency in marking every single night.

"If teachers treated students the way they're treated by NESA, they would be sacked."

A spokeswoman for NESA said that it is currently only checking whether applications comply with the requirements of the application process.

"In addition to checking process and policy compliance, NESA previously reviewed alignment of the evidence provided in applicationswith the proficient teacher standards," the spokeswoman told theHerald.

The spokeswoman said that NESA does not have any authority to overrule decisions made by principals and school bodies.

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Ms Kirkby also told the inquiry that NESA's quality checks going forward will not include any visits to schools to review teaching practices.

"What we're relying on is the judgement of senior teachers in the school who have been given the responsibility for making judgements about teachers' practice," she said.

Ms Kirkby said that the existing processes for teachers to achieve a voluntary highly accomplished or lead teacher accreditation, under which only 10 teachers received the accreditations last year, is also "of great concern to us".

"We're designing a new application process to support teachers, further to that there's been a lot of complexity across the system, duplication across the system," Ms Kirkby said.

President of the NSW Teachers Federation Maurie Mulheron said there are "teachers in every school who would be deserving of the recognition" but are not applying because the process is time-consuming and "onerous".

Education reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald

Excerpt from:
Accreditation for NSW teachers not checked in three years, inquiry hears - Sydney Morning Herald

In the basement of Nottingham Contemporary art gallery, Jennifer Lacey fans out a set of large homemade tarot cards. I pick a pink one, turn it over, and find an image of a baby chick beneath a pair of boob-like fried eggs. The artist Sarah Lucas immediately springs to mind but Laceys picture is actually a homage to Leigh Bowery, the outre superstar who was his own art object. Several portraits of Bowery hang a couple of floors above us, along with a video of him strolling through Manhattans Meatpacking District in a peanut bodysuit and one-shoulder floral dress. They are part of the exhibition Still Undead: Britain Beyond the Bauhaus, which explores the far-reaching influence of the Weimar art school. Lacey has drawn upon several of the artworks for her one-to-one performance, Extended Hermeneutics, which Im experiencing over a cup of tea in the cafe.

Lacey is an American choreographer who has been based in France since the start of the century. Presented by Nottinghams biennial dance festival, Nottdance, Extended Hermeneutics is, well, not dance. She may end each 30-minute session with a short solo but for the main part she will act as life coach, psychologist and fortune-teller. The tarot cards are part of a performance were doing together, she tells me. Were asking the art. The idea is to use artworks suggested by the cards to wrestle with a problem offered by the participant.

Ive been told that world peace and the economy are off limits and that I should choose a problem from my personal life. Having wandered around Still Undead and grown nostalgic in a room devoted to Leeds Polytechnic, I say I miss my family in Yorkshire and wish I could see more of them, but that home life with my kids in London is always hectic. Lacey seems pleased by the dilemma and we contemplate the fried eggs and happy chick on the tarot card, which is supposed to give us a feel of both the dynamics of the problem and the spirit of Bowerys work. I pretty much thought about Leigh Bowery and thought Id make him out of eggs, she explains cheerily.

I try to offer up a literal interpretation of the card as suggesting domestic routine and family life, with eggs the stuff of birth and breakfasts. But Lacey contemplates Bowerys back story and his move from one home to another: Australia to England. He had a British sensibility but was not from Britain. He came into a scene with a certain kind of unbuckled energy. She talks freely about his work the humour and terror, the homemade and the ridiculous, his use of makeup and masks.

Its like a mini art lecture, a fresh perspective on a familiar artist. The next tarot card used to suggest a possible future for my problem has a candle design inspired by the self-portraits of Gertrud Arndt, a Bauhaus photographer. Lacey riffs on how Arndt wanted to become an architect but ended up weaving and then embraced photography. She talks about the movements sexism and about art born from domesticity. Its fascinating I knew nothing of Arndt but feels as though were having to work harder to uncover any relevance to my problem. Not that Lacey ever promised any straightforward answers or predictions. Im not, like, Madame Blavatsky! she says when I ask how sceptical participants have been. If there is a truth that comes out of this its because of a collaboration, its because the person who is being read gives that information. In an artist statement from 2000, she wrote: I try not to resolve issues but rather present them in their integral knottiness, to show the gloss of the tangle.

Lacey, a dancer since the age of three, is something of a conundrum herself: a dance artist who creates pieces that arent always easily categorisable as dance. After years of work, she reflected on the research that went into her choreography. I became curious about this stuff that would accumulate around making dances other branches of making or thinking that would not go into the main product. Making a dance is such an incredible amount of energy.

Extended Hermeneutics brings a fresh resonance to the Bauhaus show in Nottingham and has already been performed to complement different exhibitions in other European galleries, including in Dsseldorf and Warsaw. Lacey shows me some of her old tarot cards based on works by Dal, Max Ernst and Meret Oppenheim. When I return to the exhibition, I certainly feel a greater personal investment in Bowery and Arndts works.

The most important element of this one-to-one piece, she says, is that the participant wants to make their life legible. It contrasts with most dance, where the audience are deciphering the performers moves. Having her body read constantly when she was a dancer was a consternation for Lacey and she became focused on how to push away certain readings of your body, especially as a young woman on stage.

One of her past projects involved paying people who knew nothing about dance to be her dramaturg for a week. Id present them with what Id call my empty solo, and whatever they thought should be done with it, Id do. I ended up doing things I normally wouldnt do and felt very odd doing. By the end of the project, she laughs, she had no idea why one thing might be better than another. It was an amazing feeling but peculiar.

The thing she likes about Extended Hermeneutics, she says, is that its a very direct contact with the public that isnt about me being interpreted. As we leave the gallery, she acknowledges: This is a strange thing to do. But she adds: I still get excited about art, man! Im a super-fan!

See original here:
'We're asking the art!' The one-to-one tarot show inspired by Bauhaus - The Guardian

Having a life coach is having someone work with you for motivation and progress on both personal and professional goals, and life coaching can be applied to multiple areas of your life including academics, career, health and weight loss, personal relationships, and work-life balance

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (PRWEB) October 07, 2019

JCs Recovery Center has announced the release of their most recent infographic: An Overview of Life Coaching. The infographic goes into what it is and the benefits of life coaching.

According to JCs Recovery Center, Having a life coach is having someone work with you for motivation and progress on both personal and professional goals, and life coaching can be applied to multiple areas of your life including academics, career, health and weight loss, personal relationships, and work-life balance..

This infographic also breaks down how-to effectively utilize life coaching.

To learn more information about the importance of life coaching, view the infographic here.

About JCs Recovery Center Our mission is to provide a safe, structured and nurturing environment, for individuals of all faiths. We will be a helping hand in your passage into a new, healthy and productive way of life centered in the love of God.

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JC's Recovery Center Releases An Overview of Life Coaching - PR Web

Story by Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com

Photo by Matt Daniels/MattDanPhoto.com

Vista PEAK is, quite literally, in the midst of the best football season in school history. The Bison, which started varsity play in 2012, are 5-0 for the first time and are coming off a big 48-27 win over then-No. 3 Dakota Ridge last week a win that opened some eyes around the state and emphatically announced that this team was for real. That's not to say there's any celebrating going on yet. Vista PEAK, now ranked No. 5 in Class 4A, has another big game this week, against No. 10 Hinkley, an Aurora Public School rival. But before then, there's another first: Vista PEAK coach John Sullivan has been named the Broncos High School Coach of the Week. It is the first time the Bison have been honored as part of the program. The Broncos High School Coach of the Week is selected in partnership with the Broncos and CHSCA.

Years as head coach: 5 (28-17)

Years at Vista Peak: 5 (28-17, 5-0 this season)

Previous stops: Rangeview assistant (1999-2012), Vista PEAK assistant (2013-14), Vista PEAK head coach (2015-present).

Ryan Casey: Why did you want to become a coach?

John Sullivan: It was just kind of in my blood. My dad was one of my high school coaches, and I actually got into teaching so I could coach. At the time, when I first got into it, it was just because I loved the sport. But the longer I was in it, your priorities and your values kind of shift a little bit. Just seeing the kids when they finish playing football, and when they come back to see you, it just puts a really warm place in my heart, makes me feel good. I can see that I had some sort of impact on these kids, whether it be on the football field, or in life, helping these kids grow up, and being there for them. It's just something that has really been important for me.

Casey: What kind of coach do you think you are?

Sullivan: I like to challenge the kids, off the field and on the field. I put a high premium on character, and put a high premium on work ethic. But there's also a place where myself and our coaching staff is not afraid to tell the kids we love them, and we value them and believe in them.

There's kind of both ends of it, where we want to push the kids but also let them know that we're here for them, and it's unconditional, and we'll do whatever we can to help them be successful in life.

Casey: You guys are 5-0. What has the first part of the season been like?

Sullivan: As with pretty much every program in the state, we have kids that work hard during the summer, in the weight room and in 7-on-7. We had a pretty good idea, based on returners from last year, that we could possibly be a good team this year. There's a lot that goes into being a good team outside of football chemistry, and the involvement of the parents in a positive way. And we had all those things. We started the season with a lightning storm down at Mesa Ridge, and came back to school at 1 o'clock in the morning. We had some adversity right away, and our kids have really stepped up. I give them a ton of credit. They've absorbed what we've thrown at them. This is also year two of us kind of changing our offensive and defensive philosophy, and putting a greater premium on the character development stuff. And we're really seeing the fruits of our labor with that.

Casey: Last week, you beat Dakota Ridge 48-27. I think people thought you were a good team, but I think that win opened a few eyes. Do you feel that way, too?

Sullivan: I think so. I hope so. As a newer school, you're always struggling for an identity and trying to get noticed. We had a pretty good idea of what we have here, and then going into the game, our kids knew this was an opportunity for people outside of Aurora to try to take notice.

We hope that happened, and we're on to the next week. We have a big game against Hinkley, who is also undefeated.

Casey: I was going to say, that's pretty cool for Aurora Public Schools to have this game on Friday.

Sullivan: It is. It's awesome. You know, Rangeview has had some great success in basketball, but other than that, there hasn't been a whole lot of team sports in APS that have garnered a lot of attention, so it is really cool that two teams can go in and play a meaningful game in the middle of the year that has playoff implications. They're a good team, and we are really looking forward to this game, as well.

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Broncos High School Coach of the Week - DenverBroncos.com

KALAMAZOO, MI - Ron Welch started his coaching career with Brown Citys seventh and eighth grade boys basketball team in 1964, and after five decades around the game, theres hardly anything that surprises him anymore.

But he couldn't help but be taken aback when he learned earlier this year that he'd be joining the likes of John Beilein, Jud Heathcote and a personal hero of his -- Tom Izzo -- in the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan's Hall of Fame.

The Southwest Michigan coaching legend and longtime leader of the Kalamazoo Valley Community College womens hoops team is part of BCAMs four-member 2019 induction class, which also includes current Hudsonville Unity Christian boys basketball coach Scott Soodsma, current Clinton Township Chippewa Valley boys basketball coach Kevin Voss and former Cornerstone University mens basketball coach Kim Elders.

Also joining Welch at the ceremony is Ron Boven, a middle school basketball coach at Mattawan since 1974, who is being inducted into the BCAM Hall of Honor.

The induction ceremony begins 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Auburn Hills Marriot Pontiac's banquet room.

"Well, I was a little stunned to start with, but that kind of turned into gratefulness and thankfulness and just generally got me thinking about all the people that had a hand in getting me there," Welch said of the his hall of fame honor. "I've had some terrific players, and the bottom line is this is a wonderful, wonderful recognition, but it doesn't happen without having those good players that you've built relationships with and many of whom I still talk to. It's pretty special."

KALAMAZOO GAZETTE

KVCC women's basketball Head Coach Ron Welch huddles up with his players before his last game after 20 years of coaching at KVCC in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Monday February 23, 2015. (Christian Randolph/Kalamazoo Gazette)

Welch said he first got the spark to start coaching when his own high school hoops coach -- Brown Citys Lee Noftz -- hired him fresh out of college to be the middle school coach at his alma mater in Michigans Thumb region.

From there, he went on to coach middle school girls basketball teams at St. Joseph Parish in Kalamazoo, before taking his first high school job as the junior varsity coach at Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central.

Welch was promoted to lead the girls varsity program at Hackett, before getting his first shot at leading a college program at Nazareth College in Kalamazoo.

When Nazareth closed in 1992, Welch found himself out of a job, until Comstock athletic director Fred Smith offered him a job as the Colts girls junior varsity coach.

It was during his time at Comstock that Welch got to know Kalamazoo Valley athletic director Dick Shilts, who brought the now veteran coach into the Cougars family as a volunteer assistant on the women's basketball team.

One year later, Welch became the head coach of the Cougars' women's team, all while balancing varsity coaching duties at Comstock.

He continued to coach high school girls in the fall and junior college women in the winter for several years, before shifting his focus solely to Kalamazoo Valley.

Patrick Nothaft | MLive.com

KVCC women's basketball coach Ron Welch (right) and assistant coach Maureen Brown get a dousing from their team as part of a cold-water challenge benefitting the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. (Patrick Nothaft | MLive.com)

It turned out to be a wise choice for both Welch and the Cougars program, which went on to enjoy one of its most successful stretches, including a 29-game winning streak, a national No. 1 ranking and two trips to the National Junior College Athletic Association's Final Four.

"That was a great group of players, and you don't win 29 in a row without them, but they were also great people," Welch said of his time at Kalamazoo Valley. "We never quite got that cherry of a national championship, but we enjoyed tremendous success."

Welch retired from Kalamazoo Valley in 2015 after 21 seasons with the Cougars and watched his daughter Maureen, a former KVCC player and assistant coach, take over the program Welch brought to national relevance.

KALAMAZOO GAZETTE

KVCC women's basketball Head Coach Ron Welch is honored before his last game after 20 years of coaching at KVCC in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Monday February 23, 2015. (Christian Randolph/Kalamazoo Gazette) KALAMAZOO GAZETTE

He was inducted into both the NJCAA Hall of Fame and the Kalamazoo Hackett Hall of Fame in 2016, but he said the BCAM honor has a different type of significance for him because the nominations and voting are done by current and former coaches that have spent a lot of time in his shoes.

This one is pretty special because its being recognized by your peers, not someone elses opinion of what youve done, he said. "Not to down play the other ones, but that probably makes it the most special.

"A hero of mine, Tom Izzo, is in the same hall of fame, and he's a guy that in many ways I've patterned my programs after, obviously at a very different left, but I've had some success because of that."

Even after he retired from Kalamazoo Valley, Welch stayed involved in coaching, serving as an assistant under his son-in-law, Jesse Brown, on the Kalamazoo United high school football staff and helping his daughter, Maureen Brown, when she took over the Kalamazoo Hackett girls hoops head coaching job in 2017.

This winter is the first season Welch won't find himself courtside in a folding chair, and looking back on his five-decade run as a coach, he said it was never just about the game; it was also about helping his players reach their potential off the court.

Coaching basketball isnt just about basketball, its about teaching life skills and growing young men and women of character, and I feel weve done that along the way, he said. Im proud of the young men and women, whose lives Ive had the opportunity to touch in what was, up until last year, a 47-year journey of coaching.

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Longtime Kalamazoo Valley coach Ron Welch heading to BCAM Hall of Fame - MLive.com