The University of Saint Katherine has added three new faces to it’s men’s basketball staff.
Joining the USK staff will be two new assistant coaches and a sport performance coach: Tyson Kygar, Martin Tombe, and Desean Berger.
Kygar was a local San Diego player coming from El Capitan High School. He continued his education by first playing for Grossmont for two years and then transferring to Cal State San Marcos from 2014-2017. Kygar has shown success wherever he goes as he was a part of a 30+ win season and an NAIA Elite 8 Tournament for CSUSM in 2014-15. He also helped CSUSM transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II with back to back winning seasons as a Division II player. After his playing career ended he stayed local for another year and coached at Grossmont College. Kygar then decided he wanted to further his experience and education and took a Graduate Assistant coaching position for Northwestern State and then for CSU Northridge. Kygar earned his Masters in Recreation and Tourism and gained three years of DI coaching experience.
“Tyson was an obvious choice for this position. I have worked with him before and he played locally at CSUSM when it was an NAIA University. In 2019-20 USK played CSUN and seeing Tyson’s growth and maturity while at the game showed me a lot back then” said head coach Kevin Williamson.
“He comes to USK with 3 seasons of NCAA D1 experience and local community college coaching experience. I felt like this was a natural fit for Tyson and I am very excited and fortunate to get such a quality and experienced assistant so late in the game.
Tyson will make a great replacement for Travis Timmons who did a great job in helping build this program up. I’m looking forward to seeing Tyson put his personal stamp on the program much the same.”
Tombe was a very successful athlete playing four years at St. Augustine High School under Mike Haupt and winning two San Diego section CIF titles and a California State title in 2012. He then went on to continue his education while playing for UC San Diego. Tombe played all four years at UCSD and in 2019-20 the UCSD basketball team was a top contender to potentially win a NCAA Division II National Championship prior to Covid-19 ending the season short. UCSD finished the regular season and CCAA tournament with an overall record of 30-1. Tombe also helped with the transition from NCAA DII to DI in 2020-21.
“Martin is a rising star in the coaching profession,” said Williamson. “He is highly motivated, well educated and very eager to learn & grow as a coach.
In just a short time already Martin is showing his on-court basketball IQ and player relatability. This isn’t shocking to me as he came to USK with amazing references from Saint Augustine’s coach Mike Haupt and UCSD’s Eric Olen and staff. Both of those references I am very familiar with as I have coached against both in my past.”
Berger is the owner of Odyssey Performance Sports Training Center in Vista, Calif. The men’s basketball team is very excited to train under him with his vast amount of knowledge and experience. He has been in the sport performance industry since 2015 and has certifications from NASM, ACE, PT Global, and earned a USA Olympic Lifting Silver Certification. Berger has trained over 1,000 athletes ranging from seven years old to professional and international athletes. Berger will lead all strength, conditioning, and sport performance training for the men’s basketball team.
“I’ve been so thrilled this past week watching Desean train the team,” said Williamson. “He has a real passion for sport performance and is so enthusiastic with the guys!
His background in playing and coaching basketball will help immensely in getting the players sport-specific ready for a long basketball season
I think he will physically help take our players to a level we haven’t been able to get to at USK. The addition of this position will go a very long way for USK basketball far after the season ends.”
https://uskathletics.com/news/2021/9/16/mens-basketball-brings-on-great-additions-to-staff.aspx
