Jacksonville – Men’s head basketball Coach Darrin DeNeve of the MacMurray College Athletic Department received the 2005 United Methodist Board of Higher Education Award for Teaching Excellence at the College.

     Coach DeNeve was presented the prestigious annual award by MacMurray President Lawrence D. Bryan during the College’s 2005 Homecoming and Founders’ Day Convocation Saturday, Oct. 29.

     The award is given to a teacher for demonstrating excellence in teaching, civility and concern for students and colleagues, commitment to value-centered education, service to students beyond the classroom, service to MacMurray College, service to the community beyond the campus and service to a local church.

     President Bryan presented Coach DeNeve with a certificate from the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and a monetary award of $1000.

     Candidates for the United Methodist honor are recommended by a committee of representative faculty, students and recent alumni after nominations are submitted by College juniors, seniors and faculty.

     MacMurray was founded Oct. 10, 1846, by pioneer Methodist clergymen as a women’s college. Now a co-educational liberal arts institution, the College continues to maintain its affiliation with the United Methodist Church.

     Coach DeNeve, originally from Port Byron, Ill., graduated from Riverdale High School in 1989. He had been a math teacher and varsity basketball coach at Stillman Valley High School since 1995 before coming to MacMurray. Coach DeNeve was previously MacMurray’s men’s assistant basketball coach in 1994 – 1995 while teaching math at Jacksonville High School. Before that he taught at Erie High School for a year and coached the sophomore basketball team. He also was a part-time instructor at Rockford College in 2003 and assistant men’s basketball coach at Beloit College from 1999 – 2000. He began working at MacMurray again in August of 2000 as the new mathematics instructor and the assistant coach of the Highlanders basketball team…for the second time in his career.

     He is a graduate of Illinois State University with a BS in mathematics education in 1993, being named Mathematics Education major of that year. He obtained his MS in mathematics education at Northern Illinois University in 1999.

     Coach DeNeve is a member of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. At MacMurray, he teaches the mathematics education classes (Math for Elementary Teachers I and II, Teaching Mathematics in Elementary School), Quantitative Reasoning, and has taught a variety of other math courses including Calculus, Discrete Mathematics, Statistics, Teaching Secondary School Mathematics, and Number Theory.

     Located in Jacksonville, Ill., MacMurray College is a private, four-year, liberal arts, coeducational college, founded in 1846, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Its friendly, informal environment stresses academic excellence, personal attention, career experience, and well-rounded development of each individual.