Vermont University

Duquesne Looks to New Coach to Reinvigorate Basketball Program

Ron Everhart, who in his last two coaching stops reversed the fortunes of the men’s basketball programs at both McNeese State and Northeastern, has been named men’s basketball coach at Duquesne University. 

Everhart, 44, reached an agreement with Duquesne on March 29. He becomes the 15th head coach in the 89-year history of Duquesne basketball.

“In Ron Everhart we’ve hired a head coach with a proven track record of turning programs around,” said Greg Amodio, director of athletics. “His ability as a teacher and passion for the game has enabled him to successfully rebuild programs at both McNeese State and Northeastern. His experience gives him a firm understanding of the task at hand. As someone who grew up in this area, Ron embodies the blue-collar work ethic which will be essential in his success as we move forward.”
At the March 29 press conference introducing Everhart to the team and community, President Charles Dougherty expressed his pleasure at bringing Everhart on board.

“When I first met Ron, three things impressed me. One, his commitment to maintain high academic standards. You can’t have a coach at Duquesne University without that commitment. We want players to be students while they are here. We want them to graduate, and he has that commitment to build on that Duquesne tradition. Second important thing, high ethical standards. We don’t want to be just compliant with the rules; we want to be exemplary in terms of the program we run.

“Finally, and important for us, Ron has a passion for winning,” Dougherty said, “and that is something that we had to have in our new coach … someone who can return our program to its winning ways. Our fans deserve that, our players want it, and the whole Duquesne community has been looking forward to it.”

“Maybe aside from the day my children were born, this is probably the happiest day of my life,” said Everhart, the father of 7-year-old twins. “It is not often a coach gets the opportunity to work at a University whose religious structures and values are those that I and my family try to live our lives by. A guy gets the job that he loves to do and he gets to do that in a place where he was born and raised. Today, I’m that very fortunate person.”

Everhart, a native of nearby Fairmont, W.Va., grew up listening to Duquesne basketball on his transistor radio. He has compiled a 174-172 (.503) record in 12 seasons as a head coach at McNeese State and Northeastern, while engineering dramatic turnarounds at both schools.

At Northeastern, he inherited a program that averaged fewer than nine wins in the six seasons prior to his arrival and produced 19, 21 and 19 victories in each of the past three years. In his five seasons at the Boston, Mass. school, the Huskies averaged 16.4 wins.

His 2004-05 team, which finished second in the America East Conference with a 15-3 record (21-10 overall), advanced to the postseason conference tournament championship game where it lost to NCAA Tournament Cinderella Vermont. The `05 Huskies went on to earn an NIT bid–marking Northeastern’s first postseason appearance in 14 years.

5 comments April 12th, 2006