This was posted while I was in the middle of my honeymoon, which is why I missed it. Oops! Anyway, nice article by Diamond Leung on new Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford.
Hayford played the percentages and won. In fact, he’s never gone through a single losing season in 12 seasons as a head coach. Before Eastern Washington looked no farther than nearby Whitworth University in Spokane to find its new coach, Hayford’s tactics had enabled the Presbyterian school to methodically emerge as a Division III powerhouse and make an Elite Eight appearance last season.It's a very nice article overall, including interesting stuff about how his daughter has twice beaten leukemia. It is a very good, well-written article. Hopefully we will see more and more on Hayford throughout the years, because that will mean good things are happening for Eastern Washington.
I think Hayford is going to be a success for EWU, and I am excited to see his teams play. The season begins in a couple short weeks.
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The nice thing about this hire is Hayford is a guy who will probably remain at EWU for a while, provided he is successful. The Big Sky has been known as a stepping stone, but being able to keep some coaches for a longer time period helps build the program and an identity.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, his staff consists of a coach who followed him from Whitworth, a coach who remained from EWU, and a coach with pro experience. On paper, he built a staff the way he should have. If he had brought all his assistants from Whitworth to be on his staff at EWU, I think the growing pains would have been huge. Keeping a current EWU assistant shows me that he checked his ego at the door.