OKLAHOMA CITY – With the 2023-24 academic year about to get underway, Mid-America Christian Athletics is proud to announce six new coaches and staff members.
Stacey Brown – Assistant Cross Country/Track & Field Coach
Competing in its return seasons, Stacey Brown will join Merritt Suenram to serve as the Assistant Coach for the MACU cross country and track & field programs. The MACU men's and women's cross country teams will begin competition on Saturday, Sept. 2 as the Evangels will open the season at the JK Gold Invitational hosted by Wichita State. The Evangels will also compete in distance events during the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2024.
Last year, Brown served as the assistant boys' and girls' cross country coach at Westmoore High School in 2022 and then the assistant boys' and girls' track & field coach at Southmoore High School in the spring of 2023. Since May of 2021, Brown has served in the Oklahoma City area as a person running coach.
Overall, Brown has been a Certified Personal Trainer for 17 years, which included serving as the Head Athletic Trainer at OrangeTheory from January 2017 to October of 2021.
Locally, Brown works for Christ Family Church in Oklahoma City for the Connections and Women's Ministry, a role she has served since July of 2022.
In her free time, Brown has qualified and competed in 25 marathons nationally over a 10-year period, which included running in the famous Boston Marathon on four occasions.
Johanna Behrens – Women's Soccer Graduate Assistant Coach
Making her return to MACU, Johanna Behrens will be entering her first season as the Graduate Assistant Coach for the women's soccer program in 2023 and will also serve as a coach for the women's reserve team entering its inaugural season.
Competing with the Evangels in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Behrens was one of the best passing attackers to ever compete with the program. In her two years at MACU, Behrens netted four goals and dished out 14 assists, tying the sixth-most career assists in program history while her nine assists during the 2020 campaign is tied for the fourth-most in a single year in the MACU record book.
Before coming to MACU, Behrens spent a redshirt season at NCAA D-I Grambling State in 2019 after competing for Barton Community College (Kan.) for two years, scoring 10 goals and tallying seven assists in 32 matches with the Cougars.
A native of Bochum, Germany, Behrens served as a 7U coach in her home country during 2015-16 before beginning her collegiate playing career in 2017.
Behrens earned her Bachelor's Degree in Biology and Psychology from Mid-America Christian in December 2021 and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Psychology at MACU.
Sven van den Oever – Men's Soccer Assistant Coach / Goalkeepers Coach
Sven van den Oever is entering the 2023 season in his first year as the goalkeepers coach for the MACU men's soccer program.
Van den Oever moves into the goalkeeping coach role after serving as a keeper for the MACU men's soccer program for the past three seasons, helping lead the Evangels to a pair of Sooner Athletic Conference regular season titles as well as three SAC Tournament Championships.
During the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign, Van den Oever put together a historic season as the Evangels stopper, recording the second-lowest goals allowed average in program history at 0.71 and notched the fifth-most shutouts with five clean sheets. Overall, Van den Oever finished the season with an 8-2-2 record while logging 1135 minutes in-net.
Van den Oever's biggest game with the Evangels came in the SAC Championship against Central Christian on Apr. 9, 2021. After going to a postgame shootout, Van den Oever made two penalty kick saves as the Evangels won the shootout 3-0 to start a string of three-straight SAC Tournament titles.
Van den Oever also got the start in the 2022 SAC Championship game against Science & Arts on Nov. 11 and came up with a save in MACU's 3-0 victory over the Drovers.
Overall, Van den Oever wrapped up his MACU career with the program record for career goals allowed average at 0.73.
Before transferring to MACU, Van den Oever spent one season as the starting goalkeeper for Angelina College (Texas), where he tallied 108 saves in 13 games.
Over the last two years, Van den Oever has also coached at the high school level, serving as the goalkeepers coach for the Norman North HS boys and girls soccer teams. In his first season with the Timberwolves, Van den Oever helped lead the boys' team to a state championship as well as a state finalist on the girls' side.
Van den Oever earned his Bachelor's Degree in Business and Ethics from Mid-America Christian in May 2023 and is currently pursuing an MBA at MACU. Van den Oever holds a USA Class C Coaching License.
Ryan Reed – Baseball Graduate Assistant Coach
After closing out an immaculate playing career at Mid-America Christian, Ryan Reed will be entering his first season as the program's Graduate Assistant Coach in 2024.
Reed wrapped up a stellar playing career at MACU by helping lead the team to its first NCCAA World Series title in a 3-2 win over Southwestern Christian in 10 innings in the title game on May 23, 2023. In that game, Reed came up with one of the biggest plays of the game when he successfully stole home to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth.
In his final season with the Evangels in 2023, Reed finished as one of the team's best hitters and defenders, raking in the second-best batting average on the team at .365 as he ripped nine doubles and three homers for 17 RBIs and 31 runs hitting out of the lead-off position. Reed also put together just the second unblemished defensive performance in the history of the program as the team's starting second baseman did not commit a single error in 122 chances. The Evangels capped off the year with its winningest in program history, finishing with a 39-17 overall record and a 15-9 mark in SAC play.
During the 2022 campaign, Reed found himself in the program's NAIA Era single-season record book as his 47 runs scored is tied for the fifth-most in one season. Reed closed out the year with a .277 batting average while tallying six doubles and seven homers for 21 RBIs. Reed was one of the team leaders in guiding the Evangels to a 32-22 overall record, one of the winningest seasons since the program joined the NAIA while closing out with a 12-12 record against league competition.
Overall, Reed wrapped up his two-year MACU playing career with a .320 batting average, slashing 82-for-256 with 15 doubles and 10 homers, 38 RBIs and his 78 runs is the seventh-most scored in a career in the NAIA Era.
Before coming to play at MACU, Reed spent one season with NCAA D-II Rogers State (Okla.) in 2021 after a two-year playing career at Vernon College (Texas) in 2019 and 2020.
Reed earned his Bachelor's degree in Business and Ethics from Mid-America Christian in May 2023 and is pursuing his Master's in Leadership from MACU.
Janessa Larman – Softball Assistant Coach
One of the top hitters in program history, Janessa Larman will be entering her first season as an Assistant Coach for the MACU softball program.
Larman is starting her collegiate coaching career after wrapping up in immaculate two-year playing career at MACU. Competing during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Choctaw, Okla. native sits in the program's all-time career top 10 lists in multiple statistical categories, including: batting average (.344, 7th), slugging percentage (.549), on-base percentage (.384, 10th), OPS (.933, 4th), doubles (26, 8th), home runs (13, 2nd) and RBIs (91, 3rd).
Larman also holds multiple top 10 season marks in the MACU record book, including: hits (53, 9th - 2023), doubles (15, 10th - 2023), home runs (8, 5th - 2022), RBIs (49, 3rd - 2023; 42, 7th - 2022), total bases (91, 7th - 2023; 88, 10th - 2022) and assists (96, 7th - 2023).
Over the course of her MACU career, Larman was named a two-time All-SAC performer, earning First Team honors in 2023 and Second Team accolades in 2022 as well as NCCAA All-Central Region honors in 2022. Larman was also a two-time NAIA, NCCAA and SAC Scholar-Athlete while also being named to the NCCAA All-Tournament Team in both 2022 and 2023.
Previously, Larman competed for NCAA Division II Cameron (Okla.), where she saw action in 33 games while tallying 10 hits, including two doubles and two homers for eight RBIs and five runs over two seasons.
Larman earned her Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Mid-America Christian in May 2023 and is currently pursuing her Master's in Leadership from MACU.
Dante Luz – Sports Information/Video Coordinator Graduate Assistant
After a highly successful playing career as a student-athlete on the MACU men's soccer team, Dante Luz makes his return to the MACU family as he will serve as the program's new Sports Information/Video Coordinator Graduate Assistant for the 2023-24 athletic year.
Luz was a decorated student-athlete with the men's soccer program from 2020-22, earning three NAIA and SAC Scholar-Athlete awards as well as a pair of NCCAA Scholar-Athlete accolades. Luz also earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors last season.
In closing out his three-year MACU career, Luz found himself in the career record books at MACU after competing in the 10th-most games (65) while logging eighth-most minutes (4074) as the Evangels' outside back. In that time frame, Luz netted seven goals and dished out nine assists for 23 points.
Before returning to MACU, Luz served as a data entry and customer service representative for UFLIP, a digital marketplace for resale items, stepping into the role in February 2023. Luz also currently works as a OSSAA soccer referee, serving in the position since February of 2022.
Previously, Luz worked as a recruiter assistant for Rio Athletic Management based out of his home country in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which assisted athletes in Brazil to sign letters of intent to compete for colleges and universities in the United States.
Luz received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Sports Management from Mid-America Christian in December of 2022 and is currently pursuing an MBA with a Communications emphasis at MACU.
