NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Niagara men’s basketball head coach Joe Mihalich has hired Ron Ginyard to fill the position of assistant coach for the Purple Eagle coaching staff. Ginyard brings over five years of NCAA Division I coaching experience to Monteagle Ridge.
“We are very excited to welcome Coach Ron Ginyard to our Niagara University Basketball family,” Mihalich said. “Coach Ginyard brings a high level of basketball knowledge and experience both on the floor and in the recruiting world. He is a basketball lifer and basketball junkie. I was taught long ago that to be successful you need to surround yourself with good people and Coach G epitomizes this. Coach Ginyard, his wife Therese and their young son Xavier will be a welcome addition to the Niagara University community.”
Ginyard comes to Niagara after spending three years as an assistant coach at the United States Naval Academy. While at Navy, Ginyard built his reputation as a strong recruiter. He served as the recruiting coordinator for the last two seasons where he brought in consecutive highly-rated recruiting classes to the Patriot League. The 2010-11 freshman class scored the most points by a freshman class in program history and had two players (J.J. Avila and Isaiah Roberts) named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team; Avila became Navy’s first-ever Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
The Midshipmen had five all-conference/rookie honorees in the three years Ginyard was there. Ginyard helped the 2008-09 team to a 19-11 overall record, which equaled the most wins for Navy since the 1999-00 season.
Ginyard came to Navy after spending one year in the same capacity at The Citadel. The 2007-08 squad was the youngest team in the nation with 14 freshmen. The Bulldogs led the Southern Conference with a program-best 283 3-pointers made and finished sixth in the country in 3-pointers made per game. Ginyard was instrumental in the development of the Southern Conference’s Freshman of the Year Cameron Wells and fellow all-freshman team member Austin Dahn.
Prior to joining The Citael, Ginyard was the director of basketball operations at Columbia University for one season where he helped the Lions to a 16-12 record in the 2006-07 for their best record in 13 years.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to join the Niagara basketball staff,” Ginyard said. “I am thankful to Coach Mihalich for allowing me to bring my qualities here and to continue to build this program. I’m looking forward to being a part of the family atmosphere and a part of the Niagara University community.”
A native of Arlington, Va., Ginyard was an assistant coach for the boys’ basketball team at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington from 2002-06. During his time at Bishop O’Connell, he coached and recruited 14 players that played college basketball, including his brother Marcus at the University of North Carolina, while earning 107 wins, the program’s first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title, three consecutive Alhambra Catholic Invitational titles, three Virginia Independent School State titles and two Washington Post Players of the Year.
Ginyard served as a coach and league commissioner at Coach Wootten’s Basketball Camp, run by legendary Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wootten and his son Joe Wootten, for seven weeks during the summers of 2002-06.
Ginyard is a 2006 graduate of Georgetown University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government. He played one season (1999-00) of collegiate basketball at NCAA Division II Pace University after a stellar high school career at Paul VI Catholic High School where he was a senior captain and a McDonald’s All-American Team nominee.
Ginyard and his wife, Therese, are the parents of a son, Xavier Michael, who was born in February 2011.
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