SEARK announces interim AD, new basketball coaches
(June 17, 2026 - Pine Bluff Commercial) Southeast Arkansas College announced Wednesday the appointment of an interim athletic director and the hiring of new basketball coaches.
Softball coach Doug Wingler will serve as interim athletic director while continuing to lead the Lady Sharks’ softball team. James Voight will be SEARK’s second men’s basketball coach, while Chad Killinger will take over as the third women’s basketball coach.
These appointments come after departures of women’s basketball coach James Thatcher and SEARK’s inaugural athletic director and men’s basketball coach, Chad Kline, over the past two months. SEARK president Tyrone Jackson told The Commercial last month a full-time athletic director decision will likely be made in the fall.
Wingler recently led SEARK’s softball program to its first completed season after the first two seasons were cut short due to low roster numbers. The Lady Sharks qualified for the postseason, earning the No. 8-seed in the NJCAA Division II Region 2 tournament.
“I am grateful to SEARK for the opportunity to lead the Athletic Department and to continue to build a competitive softball program,” Wingler said in a statement.
The former University of Louisville baseball player came to SEARK last offseason after spending the prior seven seasons leading Mendocino College in Ukiah, Calif. He also has a decade of high school coaching experience.
Voight comes to SEARK with 15 years of head coaching experience, according to a SEARK release. He most recently coached the University of the Southwest in Hobbs, N.M., from 2021-25.
He inherited a USW program which had gone 0-14 the season before his hire and turned things around, leading the program to Red River Athletic Conference championship game appearances in his third and fourth seasons.
“I’m incredibly honored and excited to become the head men’s basketball coach at Southeast Arkansas College,” Voight said. “This is a tremendous opportunity to build a program that competes at a high level while helping young men grow academically, athletically, and personally. I’m grateful to the administration for believing in my vision, and I can’t wait to get to work.”
According to SEARK’s release, Voight’s career coaching record is 250-165, which includes several high school coaching jobs.
Killinger comes to SEARK with 28 years of coaching experience, including 18 at the NJCAA level. He also made several stops at NCAA Division I programs, including the head position at Indiana State from 2021-2024. He stepped down from ISU after missing the conference portion of his final season’s schedule with an undisclosed illness. He was then hired by Illinois’ Wabash Valley College last May.
He also coached at Nicholls State, East Carolina and Marshall. In the junior college ranks, he led Missouri’s Moberly Area Community College to a 147-71 record, which included a 32-1 season in 2017-18. Prior to Moberly, he led Illinois’ Lincoln Trail College to its first NJCAA national tournament appearance.
“I am excited to join the athletic department at Southeast Arkansas College and believe we have an opportunity to build something special in Pine Bluff,” Killinger said. “Our women’s basketball program will be dedicated to hard work on the court and in the classroom while being involved in the community. We are going to do our best to make everyone proud of our effort on a daily basis.”
The 2026-27 season will be SEARK’s third competing in basketball.