ORONO – A former assistant trainer with the Detroit Lions is one of two candidates who will be interviewed next week for the University of Maine’s athletic director’s position, it was announced Monday.

Donald Kaverman, most recently the associate director of athletics for business and financial affairs at San Diego State University, and Suzanne Tyler, senior associate athletic director at the University of Maryland, will meet with various campus groups, said Anne Pooler, head of an 18-member search committee.

Tyler, who holds a doctorate in sports psychology from Maryland, has led Maryland field hockey and women’s lacrosse teams to national championships. She has twice been named the NCAA’s Coach of the Year in lacrosse.

Kaverman, who joined the San Diego State athletic staff in 1986, left that university last April, said a San Diego State spokesman, because Rick Bay became the athletic director there last February, reorganized the department and did away with Kaverman’s job.

Kaverman holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Michigan State, it was reported, and worked for the Lions from 1977 to 1980.

He was also an associate atheltic director for compliance and eligibility at San Diego State, the spokesman said.

Pooler, an associate dean in the UMaine College of Education, said additional candidates for the athletic director’s job will be scheduled for interviews.

This is the second search for a replacement for Michael Plozek who resigned as athletic director on April 15, 1994. A search in May 1994 was suspended last October when Doug Woolard, the candidate recommended for the position, became the AD at Saint Louis University in Missouri.

Former UMaine football coach Walter Abbott has been acting AD since April 1994.

Kaverman will visit the Orono campus next Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 7-8. Tyler will visit on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 10-11.