ECU has hired George Wright-Easy as an assistant men’s basketball coach, Pirate head coach Joe Dooley announced Monday. Ken Potosnak, who is entering his 10th season with the program, will move into the role of assistant to the head coach.
“We are excited to welcome George Wright-Easy to the Pirate family,” ECU head men’s basketball coach Joe Dooley said. “George is someone I have known and have great respect for as a leader. He is truly passionate about winning and is a great fit for our program and the culture we are building. As a former collegiate student-athlete, George will be a great mentor to our young men on and off the court. George also excels at skills development, which fits well with the emphasis we place on individual and team skills development.”
Wright-Easy has spent the past five years as the head varsity boys’ basketball coach at Dexter Southfield School in Brookline, Mass. During his time at Dexter Southfield, he had numerous players earn all-conference honors, coached four 1,000-point scorers and four players received Division I basketball scholarships under his tutelage.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to get back into the collegiate ranks at a program like the one Joe Dooley is building at East Carolina,” Wright-Easy said. “It’s truly an honor to be part of a coaching staff that has a vision for success and are relentless on the recruiting trail. It’s an exciting time at ECU with a great group of young players and the opportunity to compete in a conference as competitive as the AAC. I can’t wait to get on the court and work with our guys to maximize their development.”
Wright-Easy led DXSF to its first-ever playoff appearance in 2015 followed by three more from 2017-19. He was named the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council’s (NEPSAC) Class C Coach-of-the-Year in 2018 after engineering the school’s Class C championship run. This past season, he led DXSF into the Class B tournament. During his first season, he set the school record for wins, tied it two years later then broke it in 2018-19.
In addition to coaching Dexter Southfield, Wright-Easy has worked heavily in the grassroots/AAU circuit, founding WrightWay Skills. Wright-Easy has developed and coached fourteen players with Division I basketball scholarships in the past year and a half at WrightWay Skills. He established the AAU program in 2014 following a two-year graduate assistantship at Providence College.
During his stint at Providence, the Friars reached the quarterfinals of the NIT in 2013 before winning the 2014 BIG EAST Championship and receiving the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. He played a big role in tutoring and mentoring multiple Division I basketball players.
Wright-Easy spent his vocational career in secondary education. He served as an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, spent three years as a special education teacher in the Everett (Mass.) Public School System and worked 28 months at KIPP Lynn as both a physical education instructor and Dean of Students.
Wright-Easy was a two-sport athlete at St. Francis (Pa.), playing both Division I football and basketball. He graduated from St. Francis in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology and criminal justice.
As a member of the ECU coaching staff, Potosnak helped the Pirates construct their most successful four-year period in the school Division I history while tutoring six all-conference players and five all-freshman team selections. He came to ECU following one year at Auburn preceded by three at South Carolina.
“Ken has a wealth of experience and is an important member of our program,” Dooley said. “In his new role, Ken will continue to utilize analytics and evaluate our program outside of practices and games as we try to build a program Pirate Nation can be a proud of. He is a hard worker, passionate about the game and will continue to have a major impact on the success we have moving forward.”
Potosnak was the top assistant at Furman for eight years from 1997-2005 after he served as an assistant at The Citadel for five years (1992-97). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant to Odom at Wake Forest for two seasons from 1990-92, helping the Demon Deacons to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
https://ecupirates.com/news/2019/7/29/mens-basketball-dooley-adds-george-wright-easy-to-staff.aspx
