Randy Lee, who spent the last two seasons as the head men’s and women’s basketball coach at the University of Maine-Machias, has left to become the head men’s coach at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, an NAIA institution in Odessa.

Lee, 32, achieved tremendous success with the Clippers, leading the UMM men to the Sunrise Conference title and an NAIA Division II National Tournament berth in 2003-04. The squad was 29-4 last winter and went 51-14 (.785) in two seasons.

Lee led the UMM women to a 37-15 mark in two seasons while filling in for former coach Dean Preston, whose national guard unit was sent to Iraq. The Clipper teams went a combined 88-29 (.752) under Lee’s tutelage.

Preston has taken a high school coaching job.

Lee is a Lakeland, Fla. Native and a 1995 graduate of the University of South Carolina. He also coached the Orono High boys to an 11-9 record and an Eastern Maine Class B tourney berth in 2002-03 after serving one season as an assistant coach under John Giannini at the University of Maine in 2001-02.

Seymour joins UMPI

Maine Winter Sports Center coach Kris Cheney Seymour has been hired as a lecturer and coach for the University of Maine-Presque Isle cross country ski team, which will grow this year to include a women’s team along with last year’s men’s team.

Cheney Seymour most recently served as the MWSC’s Biathlon Program Head and has previously led the Nordic program at the New York Ski Educational Foundation and as a coach for the U.S. Ski Association’s Junior Olympics. He was named the United States Olympic Biathlon Development Coach of the Year in 1999.

He has also taught middle school students in New York as well as student-athletes at the National Sports Academy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.) and the University of Vermont.

UMPI fielded a men’s Nordic ski team that participated in several festivals on the northern circuit last year. This year the school will field a women’s team and will also participate in a more extended schedule.