The Buzz

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published February 14, 2007

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Gulf grad gets new gig

Former Gulf soccer standout Thomas Chestnutt, who helped lead the Bucs to the only final four appearance in school history his senior year in 1991, has been hired as women's soccer coach at Florida International. Chestnutt is only the second coach in FIU women's soccer history.

Chestnutt comes to FIU from the University of Florida and Fresno State, where he has been an assistant the past six seasons.

At Fresno State, he helped recruit many of the players on the 2005 Western Athletic Conference champions, as the team earned its second NCAA Tournament berth. Last season, Fresno State won the WAC regular-season title, including a win over Florida.

Chestnutt played collegiately at the University of Dayton, and as a professional with the Tampa Bay Cyclones in 1995-96 before playing FSC Lohfelden in the German Fourth Division in 1997.

Ummm...

We don't know why, but we find this fascinating: Chestnutt was awarded a summer research stipend of $2,000 while at Dayton for his proposal entitled, "A Synthetic Approach to the M-C7N Unit of the Manumycin Family of Antibiotics."

The hot list

1. Tom McHugh, Pasco football

The new coach drew about 50 people to his meet-and-greet Monday in Dade City. Enjoy the honeymoon, Coach.