Former Bermuda cricket captain Irving Romaine has expressed sadness over the death of a man who had a profound influence on his sporting career.Appalachian State University (ASU) football coach Shaun Pendleton, a regular visitor to Bermuda, was discovered dead in his North Carolina residence last month at the age of 49, leaving many like Romaine to mourn his passing.“College football has lost a very good coach and he will definitely be a big miss,” Romaine said.Romaine first came into contact with the Englishman in the late 1980s while playing in the former Diadora Youth Cup in Bermuda.Pendleton was so impressed with Romaine that he offered him a scholarship to play at the University of Charleston where he coached at the time.Romaine played under Pendleton for two years before the coach took on a new job at Lynn University.Pendleton gave the Bermudian the option of joining him at Lynn, but Romaine declined, opting instead to go to Georgia State University.Also joining Pendelton at Lynn were Bermudians Tyrell Burgess and Joey Rego.Assistant coach at Lynn was former Bermuda schoolteacher, goalkeeper and coach, Gwynn Williams.“He (Pendelton) was very influential in my sporting career because he always made me strive to be the best I can be while enjoying the sport at the same time,” Romaine added. “As a coach he was very strict on academics, discipline and respect for the game. He really pushed to you to become a student athlete.”At the time of his death Pendleton was in his fourth season at Appalachian where he compiled an overall 27-26-4 record in his three-plus campaigns at ASU. He led the Mountaineers to runners-up accolades in the Southern Conference in 2008 and 2010.Prior to then he spent 22 seasons as head coach at Lynn, leading the Knights to a pair of national championships at the NCAA Division II and NAIA levels in 2003 and 1991.With a 347-79-18 career record, his .802 winning percentage is the highest in Division II history for coaches with a minimum of ten Division II seasons under their belt.The Sheffield, England, native was a two-time all-American at the University of Akron and was an assistant on the Zips’ 1986 runner-up team.