Campbell University head men’s basketball coach Kevin McGeehan has announced the promotion of Peter Thomas to Associate Head Coach, Ander Galfsky to Director of Basketball Operations, while also adding Kevin Anderson to the staff as Assistant Director of Basketball Operations.
Thomas was McGeehan’s first hire when he was named head coach in April 2013. Since then, the 2007 University of Richmond graduate has played an instrumental role in the ascent of the Fighting Camel program. Now entering his fifth year in Buies Creek, Thomas is involved in all aspects of the operation.
In 2016-17, Campbell recorded 19 victories – the second-most in the school’s Division I era – reached the Big South Conference Championship game, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Post-Season Tournament.
Over the past two years, Campbell has been one of the country’s most-improved teams at the free throw line, moving up 301 places to finish 37th nationally (tops in the Big South) in 2016-17 at 75.1 percent.
Thomas was also the lead recruiter of Chris Clemons, the 2016 Big South freshman of the year who ranked as the nation’s second-leading scorer (25.1) in 2017.
“Peter has been with me from day one here at Campbell,” said McGeehan. “He has been intimately involved in every aspect of this program. He is a high character person and coach. Becoming the Associate Head Coach was a natural next step for Peter. I know he will continue to do an outstanding job to help us take the program to new heights.”
During his playing and coaching career, Thomas was a member of three University of Richmond teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament (2004, 2010, 2011). Among the highlights for the Richmond program during Thomas’ time on staff was consecutive NCAA tournament berths, including a trip to the 2011 NCAA Sweet 16. The Spiders were ranked in the national top-25 polls in 2010 and set a school record with 29 victories one year later when they won the Atlantic-10 Conference championship.
“I am extremely grateful to Coach McGeehan and (Athletics Director) Bob Roller for giving me this opportunity,” said Thomas. “Over the last four years, Campbell University has become a special part of my life, as well as my wife’s, as she recently graduated from Campbell Law. I couldn’t be more excited to take the next step in my career here at Campbell. Coach McGeehan has done a tremendous job leading the program, and I look forward to continuing to support him and helping to lead Campbell Basketball in my new role.”
Galfsky moves up to Director of Basketball Operations after serving one year as assistant director. In his role as Director of Operations, Galfsky is in charge of internal scheduling, serves as liaison to the compliance office, oversees team managers, handles equipment orders, ticket requests, and assists on scouts.
In his first year, he handled travel logistics, film exchange, video analysis of games and practices, as well as assisting with the organization of Campbell’s basketball camps, alumni events, on-campus official visits, plus statistical and analytics analysis.
“Ander has a done an outstanding job as our Assistant Director of Operations and will continue to do so in his expanded role as our Director of Operations,” said McGeehan. “Continuity is key in our program and I am happy to be able to provide that to our players and staff.”
A 2015 Birmingham-Southern graduate, Galfsky joined the Fighting Camel staff in May 2016 after serving the previous year as an athletics department graduate assistant at Auburn University. While at Auburn in 2015-16, Galfsky attended all basketball practices and became proficient in performance analysis software programs such as SportsCode while assisting with recruiting databases.
During his collegiate playing career at Birmingham-Southern, Galfsky helped lead the Panthers to a SCAC regular season championship and NCAA Division III national tournament berth in 2012.
After graduating from Richmond with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2011, Anderson embarked on a professional career that included stops in France, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Poland. In addition, the played with the NBA D-League’s Canton Charge in 2012, was invited to the Cleveland Cavaliers training camp in 2012 and also was a member of the Orlando Magic summer league team.
“I am happy to announce Kevin Anderson as the newest addition to our staff,” said McGeehan. “After a record setting college career at the University of Richmond and a six year professional career Kevin is ready to take the next step and move into coaching. I think his experiences over the last 10 years will help him relate really well to the players. We have been through so much together that I have the highest level of trust in him as a person. He will be a huge asset as a mentor to our young team.”
Anderson was the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year in 2008 and went on to earn A-10 Player of the Year and Conference tournament MVP honors in 2011, when he led the Spiders to the league title and to a berth in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen. He was a two-time Associated Press honorable mention All-American.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to join the staff at Campbell University and humbled to do so under Coach McGeehan’s leadership,” said Anderson. “At the University of Richmond, I respected him as my coach. Today, nearly a decade later, I trust him as a mentor and friend. As I step off the court after years overseas, I’m blessed to join a program that is investing in its future and I’m excited to be a part of it. I look forward to building on the team’s success from last year and using that momentum to have another great season.”
Campbell returns four starters and seven of its top eight scorers from the 2016-17 team that defeated Presbyterian, defending champ UNC Asheville and Radford en route to a berth in the Big South title game against top seed and host Winthrop. The Camels also knocked off Southland runner-up Houston Baptist and OVC runner-up UT-Martin in the CIT before falling to Southern Conference regular season co-champ Furman in the CIT quarters.
http://gocamels.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/releases/20170628nk3d96
