DURHAM -- Henry White says he wants to put N.C. Central's revived baseball program on a fast track to success. 

NCCU athletics director Bill Hayes introduced White at the Eagle Club's Wednesday luncheon at the Outback Steakhouse as the school's interim baseball coach, who will put a team on the field next season for one year of CIAA competition. 

NCCU, which is hoping to call Durham Bulls Athletic Park home in 2007 and plans eventually to be the primary tenant at a remodeled historic Durham Athletic Park, will move to NCAA Division I for the 2007-08 academic year. The Eagles needed to add one men's sport to fulfill Division I requirements, and White will have a program up and running in time. 

"I'm looking to have a Division I-caliber team with high school recruits and junior college transfers," White said of the 2007 squad, which will be NCCU's first baseball team since 1975. 

He's planning a tryout this spring for current NCCU students, and said he expects about three to be talented enough to be out for practice this fall. 

"Henry's going to get the program started for us, and I know he's going to do a good job," Hayes said of White, who was baseball coach at St. Augustine's, his alma mater, from 1980-2000 except for the one season in 1991-92 when he was an assistant to NCCU basketball coach Greg Jackson. "The guy's got a lot of coaching experience and he's just a super person." 

Hayes emphasized that "interim" will remain in White's title until the university advertises the position. White, who is an adjunct lecturer in NCCU's department of physical education, would almost certainly be the leading candidate for the permanent position. 

White, a 56-year-old Monroe native, graduated from St. Aug's in 1972 after playing second base and the outfield for the baseball team and point guard during basketball season. He received a master's degree in physical education from NCCU in 1980 and a doctorate in physical education with a concentration in higher education administration from Middle Tennessee State in 1992. 

He coached baseball and basketball at the middle and high school levels after finishing his college playing career, and then took over the Falcons' baseball program. St. Aug's won eight CIAA regular-season and five tournament championships during his tenure. The high point was in 1984, when the Falcons won the NAIA District 26 title and finished third in the regional in Bluefield, W.Va. 

White was also an assistant men's basketball coach for the Falcons for 10 seasons including the 1984 NCAA Division II runners-up, and was head women's basketball coach from 1995-2000. He was chairman of the physical education department at St. Aug from 1993-2000, and before coming to NCCU this time spent five years as an assistant professor at Johnson C. Smith including one year as interim athletics director. 

"I'm trying to get things organized right now," said White, who said he hopes the NCAA will someday switch back from artificial to wooden bats. "And I've got four areas to recruit -- local, state, national and international." 

White said that while the Durham area could be a source of untapped talent, and he plans to recruit Eastern North Carolina heavily. And he'll be looking to find players from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as well. 

He said his first recruiting priorities will be up the middle, finding pitchers, catchers, second basemen, shortstops and center fielders. 

"And the other thing we need to do is get out in the community," White said. "We'll want to see Little League teams coming to games together, hold baseball camps, and do things of that nature." 

White said he missed coaching after being out of it for five years. 

"I thought this would be a good opportunity to restart my career after a five-year hiatus," White said. "And I wanted to be able to build something from the ground up."