GORHAM – Former University of Maine-Presque Isle men’s basketball coach Karl Henrikson has been named to fill the same post at the University of Southern Maine.

The 47-year-old Henrikson becomes the 15th coach at USM, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1979. He succeeds Dan Costigan, who resigned the post last month after seven seasons to pursue a private business opportunity.

Henrikson started his coaching career with Southern Maine Vocational Technical College and coached two years there before moving to Lincoln Academy for a year. He was a graduate assistant at Springfield College in 1981 and head coach at Mount Desert Island High School for the next five years. He coached two years at Edward Little High before taking the UMPI job in 1989 and going 122-79 in 10 seasons there.

He has been the head coach for the Maine Central Institute postgraduate team the last three seasons.

Southern Maine athletic director Al Bean says Henrikson has a wealth of experience and numerous contacts in the basketball world, which will serve him well in recruiting top student-athletes to USM.

“Karl cares very deeply about USM and about the development of student-athletes,” Bean said in a press release. “Our immediate goal is to compete in every game we play and challenge for the Little East Conference title. Our long-term goal is to have an impact at the national level.”