New Hampton Alums Land Coaching Jobs
The NCAA coaching carousel is upon us and while this year's action seems to be focused more on the south and midwest, New England still holds strong roots to some of the most notable action. Specifically, two former New Hampton products, Ed Cooley and Cuonzo Martin, who recently landed the head coaching positions at Providence and Tennessee repectively. Both Cooley and Martin played for current Bridgton head coach Whit Lesure, who previously directed the New Hampton program.
Cooley played at New Hampton during the 1988-89 season before continuing his career at Stonehill College. His coaching career began at division III UMass Dartmouth before returning to Stonehill as an assistant coach. From there he would join Al Skinner's staff at Rhode Island before following his boss to Boston College. Cooley has spent the last five seasons as the head coach at Fairfield, rebuilding the Stags program and leading them to consecutive 20 win seasons and the 2010-2011 MAAC regular season championship.
Martin played at New Hampton during the 1990-1991 season before heading to Purdue where he scored 1666 career points and leading the team to consecutive Big Ten titles in his junior and senior seasons. Martin was drafted 57th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft and played four seasons of professional basketball before returning to Purdue as an assistant coach. Martin was named the head coach at Missouri State in 2008 where he has posted a 61-41 record including a 26-9 mark this season when they were the Missouri Valley Conference regular season champions.