DeLand, Fla. - Stetson women's basketball head coach Lynn Bria announced on Friday the addition of two new assistant coaches to her staff. Seasoned Atlantic Sun Conference coaching veteran Herman Burge and former NCAA Division II All-American player Nicole Woods will help lead the A-Sun champion Hatters as they defend their title in 2011-12.

Burge comes to the Hatters after one season on staff at conference rival Florida Gulf Coast, where he helped the Eagles win the A-Sun regular season crown and advance to the second round of the WNIT with a 28-4 (17-3 A-Sun) record.  Under his tutelage, FGCU earned votes in both major Top 25 polls and led the nation in three-point field goals per game. Prior to landing in Fort Myers, Burge spent the previous two seasons at fellow A-Sun rival Mercer, where his work with the team's guards helped Courtney Ford earn 2010 A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Burge played college basketball at Oklahoma City University as a freshman and sophomore, leading OCU to the 2005 NAIA national tournament, before transferring to NCAA Division II power Valdosta State. He earned First Team All-Gulf South Conference honors as a senior in 2006-07 with 13.0 points and a league- leading 6.3 assists per contest. Burge graduated from VSU in 2008 with a degree in Communications.

"Herman will be very instrumental in our recruiting," Coach Bria said. "I've known him for a long time; he's a great person, a hard worker and does a great job recruiting and signing good players. We were very fortunate to get him."

Woods arrives at Stetson after two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Southern Illinois, where she worked under Missy Tiber, Woods' head coach from her playing days at Belmont-Abbey College. Woods was an NCAA Division II Bulletin Second Team All-America honoree in 2005-06, averaging 24.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game on 45 percent field goal shooting and 80 percent free throw shooting en route to the Carolina-Virginia Athletic Conference Player of the Year award.

After graduating Cum Laude from Belmont-Abbey with a degree in Accounting and Business Management as well as 1,641 career points (fourth all-time at the school), she played professionally in England for the Nottingham Wildcats in 2007-08.

"Nicole is an outstanding young up-and-coming coach; she will be wonderful in this profession," reports Bria. "She can multi-task and relate to people really well. Nicole is a really hard worker is going to have an outstanding career. She will also be heavily involved in our recruiting here at Stetson."

Stetson, which went 20-13 (13-7 A-Sun) in 2010-11 and captured its third conference tournament title and second NCAA Tournament berth in program history, enjoyed the second-largest win improvement (14) in NCAA Division I women's basketball last season. The Hatters are slated to return three starters for the upcoming season including A-Sun Tournament MVP/Second Team All-Atlantic Sun junior guard Victoria McGowan (Inkster, Mich.) and A-Sun All-Tournament Team/A-Sun All-Freshman Team sophomore forward Sasha Sims (Fayetteville, Ga.). Former Big East All-Freshman Team guard Shanasa Sanders (Jacksonville, Fla.) becomes eligible to compete for Stetson this fall as well.