Ohio head basketball coach Tim O'Shea today announced the addition of Brian Townsend to the coaching staff. He fills the spot left open when Gary Manchel left to become head coach at Mercyhurst College. Townsend will be the third assistant and Kevin Kuwik moves up to the second assistant spot.

Townsend, a former University of Michigan and NFL linebacker, comes to Ohio after spending the last six years as head coach at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If that school sounds familiar, it's because current Bobcat James Bridgewater and signee Whitney Davis played their prep ball there. Although. O'Shea initially met and formed a good impression of Townsend when he was recruiting Pioneer's Ryan Sidney to Boston College.

In 1997, Townsend took over a team that had gone 6-36 its previous two season. But in 1999 he led the Pioneers to their first state championship and was named the Ann Arbor News Coach of the Year both that season and the next. After leading his team to its third 20-win season in four years, Townsend earned the Region 6 Coach-of-the-Year distinction in 2002 from the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan.

Townsend recorded 11 sacks and 115 tackles during his four-year college career, during which the Wolverines made three Rose Bowl appearances by winning the Big Ten championship and one Gator Bowl appearance after sharing the 1990 conference title. In 2000, Wolverine Magazine named him to the Michigan Football All-Decade Team.

Drafted in the 11th round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, Townsend played for both the Rams and Cincinnati Bengals over two seasons. He then began his coaching career as a varsity assistant at his former school, Northwest High School, in Cincinnati.