The longest tenured member of the Menlo College Athletic Department was named interim head coach of the Oaks football program on Wednesday. Fred Guidici has long served as Menlo's special teams coordinator and director of football operations while also fulfilling the role of recruiting coordinator within the athletic department.

Guidici -- the sixth head coach at Menlo since it became a four-year institution -- takes over as the leader of Oaks football from Mark Kaanapu, who was named head coach at Merced College last week. Menlo finished the 2008 season 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the NWC.

After graduating from San Jose State with a BS in marketing and a minor in economics, Guidici's coaching pedigree began to take shape during time spent at the prep, collegiate, and professional levels. Guidici began his coaching career at his alma mater, Blackford High (1984-89) in San Jose, before moving up to the collegiate ranks at Santa Clara (1990-92) and Stanford (1993-94). Following a year spent with the Oakland Raiders (1995), Guidici assisted with the Arena Football League's San Jose SaberCats (1996-98) during his first three seasons at Menlo.

Since his arrival in 1996, Guidici has been instrumental in leading a number of record-setting special teams units at Menlo.

The Oaks have totaled 47 blocked kicks under Guidici – including seven in 2008 – and featured some of the country's top kick returners. In 2006, the Oaks special teams scored touchdowns in three consecutive games behind the strength of D3football.com All-American kickoff returner Jihad Mahasin, who led Division III with a 33.2 yard return average, and punt returner Galen Perry, who finished ninth in the country with a 15.2 yard return average. Menlo finished the 2006 season as the NWC's top punt return team while ranking fourth nationally. The Oaks ended the 2001 season ranked in the top 10 nationally in both punt return and kickoff return average.

Guidici will continue as the recruiting coordinator for Menlo athletics. The Oaks, who lost five games by 10 points or less in 2008, open the season at home against Occidental, which ended the season ranked No. 15, on Sept. 5 at 12 p.m.

Colorado College became the third Division III school to drop football this offseason, making the announcement that it was cutting the sport effective the end of the 2008 season.

The decision, announced by president Richard Celeste and athletic director Ken Ralph, comes in response to a mandate from the school's board of trustees to reduce spending by $8 million to $12 million during the next fiscal year.

"We went through dozens of budget scenarios before coming to the realization that we could no longer support 20 varsity sports," said Ralph, who has served as AD since July 2007. "Nobody at the school wanted this outcome and many people worked diligently to find a better alternative. In the end it was clear that this move was necessary to ensure the future health of the athletic department." Discuss the decision on D3boards.com.

The school maintained its Division I men's ice hockey and women's soccer programs. Also cut were softball and water polo. The cuts affect 54 male and 22 female team members, as well as four full-time and a dozen part-time staff positions.

"The SCAC is obviously disappointed to learn of Colorado College's decision to drop its football and softball programs," said SCAC Commissioner Dwayne Hanberry.

"I know this must have been an agonizingly difficult decision for the school to make," said Hanberry.

"My concern is for the students-athletes and their coaches affected by this change," Celeste said. "We will do all we can to support them. In the long term, our goal is to ensure that we provide the resources to sustain and strengthen our remaining sports. "If we are going to do something, we want to do it right."

The announced move will result in more than a 10 percent cut in athletic expenditures during the 2009-10 academic year. The savings from football alone will exceed $450,000.

Ice hockey's operating expenses were a little more than $1,000,000 in 2007-08, according to figures the school filed with the U.S. Department of Education.

"I am deeply troubled that these moves became necessary," Ralph said. "The elimination of programs is always an item of last resort and, unfortunately, due to the economy, we reached that point."

CC is the only Division III school in the Mountain Time Zone and is more than 600 miles from its closest football opponent, Austin College. "The expense of flying all of our teams around the country to compete has left us unable to meet our budget numbers," said Ralph. "We will put our resources to work to strengthen the remaining 17 programs."

Principia and Blackburn dropped football earlier this offseason.

The loss of Colorado College leaves the SCAC with eight football-playing schools, and eight schools with a late open date.

Mark Kaanapu has left the head coaching job at Menlo to take the top spot with Merced College. Kaanapu takes over the helm at the two-year school in California from coach Tony Lewis, who retired after a three-decade career with the Blue Devils.

Kaanapu is 30-48 since the 2001 season began.

"After a careful and thorough national search, we are very excited that Coach Kaanapu has decided to lead the Merced College Blue Devil football program," said Merced College president Benjamin T. Duran. "The pool of candidates was very strong and we are most fortunate to have landed a coach of Mark's stature and commitment to young people."

Kaanapu joined the Menlo football staff in 1996, spending his first three seasons as an assistant. He was the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator during the 1996 season before being promoted to assistant head coach in 1997. He has been responsible for all aspects of budgeting, fundraising, staff development, recruitment, and facilities planning.

From 1998 to 2000, he coached at the high school level and was an assistant coach with the Arena Football League's San Jose Sabercats in 2000, helping the team secure the Western Division title and a playoff berth.

Three-time Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year Juan Joseph of Millsaps will take his talents to the next level as he officially signed to play with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.

Joseph joined other recent Division III CFL signees, as UW-Whitewater linebacker A.J. Raebel and running back Justin Beaver, both D3football.com All-Americans, signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

"First I would like to thank God for being blessed and fortunate to play football on the next level," Joseph said. "I am truly grateful about the opportunity, and would like to thank everyone who has sacrificed in order to put me in the position that I am today. My parents, my family, my coaches, my players, my SID, and everyone else who has contributed to my success. I express great gratitude and look forward to making you all proud in the immediate future."

Joseph is the second player in three years to ink with the CFL, with wide receiver/return specialist Chris Jackson signing with the Toronto Argonauts in 2006 as a receiver.

"Juan is a bright, young man with all kind of upside," Eskimos general manager Paul Jones said. "He does a lot of things right and has got a good arm and mobility to fit into our scheme. He's no doubt a field leader, makes good decisions and has a real chance to contribute. We're looking for a young guy to groom and excited about having him join our club."

Rookies will report to training camp on Sunday, June 7 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. The Eskimos open preseason play on Wed., June 17 with Saskatchewan.

"Juan has improved each and every year as a quarterback and leader for our football team," Millsaps coach Mike DuBose said. "There is a reason we've either won or shared the conference the last three years. What he's provided as a player on and off the field is a tremendous reflection on his mom and dad and how they are."

In 2008, Joseph guided the Majors to their best record in school history at 11-1, second round playoff appearance and a school-record No. 3 ranking by D3football.com. His 3,463 yards passing was second in single-season league history, while breaking his own Millsaps single-season records in passing yards, touchdowns (32), completions (301) and attempts (445). Amazingly, in 445 pass attempts, the senior was picked off just six times, while rushing for a team and career-high 412 yards and four TDs.

Joseph posted a career mark of 26-7 as a starter, leading the Majors to an SCAC championship in every year behind center, including a pair of playoff appearances as part of the most prolific passing attack in the league and Top 10 in all of Division III football. He finished his career with a Millsaps and SCAC record 9,295 yards passing and 87 touchdowns (third in SCAC) against just 27 interceptions while completing nearly 64 percent of his passes. He also finished his career first all-time in the conference in total offense at 9,822 yards, surpassing the previous high of 9,359 yards from Trinity's Roy Hampton from 1998-2002.

A Third Team D3football.com All-American and Gagliardi Trophy Regional Finalist last season, Joseph was a nine-time SCAC Offensive Player of the Week selection during the last three seasons, ending his Millsaps career with a total of 14 school records and six conference records.

"He sort of controls his own destiny," DuBose said. "In any walk of life, there are going to be opportunities. Juan has been afforded a wonderful opportunity to play in the Canadian Football League and has worked extremely hard to get that chance. He's going into a different phase of athleticism that is football, but also a business. But because of his focus, motivation and determination it wouldn't surprise me to see him play in the National Football League one day."