Woods Resigns As Stonehill's Head Football Coach To Take Position As Linebackers Coach And Special Teams Coordinator At Harvard

January 30, 2007

Chris Woods, who has served for the past three seasons as Head Football Coach at Stonehill College, has resigned his position, effective immediately, to become the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at Harvard University. Woods's resignation was announced and accepted earlier today by Paula J. Sullivan, Stonehill's Director of Athletics.

Woods, a native of Milton, Mass., arrived in Easton in December 2003 after serving for three seasons as the Head Football Coach at Mansfield (Pa.) University. After guiding the Skyhawks to a pair of wins in his inaugural campaign in 2004, Woods led Stonehill to its highest victory mark in four seasons in 2005, as the Skyhawks finished sixth in Northeast-10 Conference play with league wins over Assumption, Pace, Saint Anselm and Merrimack, and during his tenure he coached six all-conference performers.

Prior to his arrival at Stonehill, Woods earned the nod as the American Football Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year after leading Mansfield to its highest win total in 57 years in 2003 with eight triumphs, as he was also tabbed as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Coach of the Year. Woods, who will join Crimson Head Coach Tim Murphy's staff later this week, has additional experience as an assistant both at Wittenberg and Plymouth State after a standout playing career at Davidson, from which he graduated from in 1991.

"I know this was a very difficult decision for Chris to make, and I want to thank him for his efforts on behalf of our football program and our student-athletes," Sullivan said of Woods's resignation. "All of us in the College's athletic community wish him and his family well in his new duties at Harvard and in the future."

"We will move very quickly to find a successor for Coach Woods, and I am confident that we will find the balance of success both on the field and in the classroom that embodies all of our programs at Stonehill," Sullivan continued, and she added that the search for the next Skyhawk football mentor will "begin immediately."

Sullivan also announced that current offensive coordinator Brad Paulson will serve as interim head coach until Woods's successor is in place.