aco “Shark” Hamilton, who built the Union High School (Camas, Wash.) boys basketball program from inception to state champion in just three years, is the new men’s basketball coach at George Fox University.
Hamilton, 35, was the school’s first boys basketball coach when Union High School opened in 2007. In 2009-10, his team won the 3A (the state’s second-largest classification) Washington state title. He was named Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association 3A Coach of the Year. In the school’s first six years of existence, Union has gone 95-56 (.629) and won three league titles, two district titles, three state tournament trophies and one state title. They finished seventh in the 2008-09 3A state tournament and third in the 2011-12 4A state tournament.
His teams are known for their fast-paced offenses and pressure defenses. Hamilton has won or shared the last three 4A Greater St. Helens League Coach of the Year awards.
Hamilton has strong basketball connections in Oregon and Washington. He played at Fort Vancouver High School, Mt. Hood Community College (1998-99) and Eastern Oregon University (1999-01). He has assisted at Mountain View High School (2001-03), the University of Portland (2003-04) and Ridgefield High School (2006-07).
A 2001 graduate of Eastern Oregon in business administration management, Hamilton worked as a multicultural youth outreach coordinator and student advocate at Mountain View (Vancouver, Wash.) (2001-06) and as a guidance counselor at Ridgefield (2006-07) and Union (2007-13). He earned his masters in education from City University in 2006.
Hamilton serves on the board of Courts for Kids, a nonprofit organization that sends sports teams to economically disadvantaged areas where they partner with local organizations to build courts for use by youth. He has joined Courts for Kids trips to the Philippines, Uganda and Costa Rica.
This spring he joined a U.S. Department of State funded trip to lead a coaches clinic in Uganda, where he worked with more than 200 coaches. In 2001, he played on an Athletes in Action team that traveled through Kenya playing professional teams.
Hamilton replaces Mark Sundquist, who left the university this summer after 13 seasons. The Bruins lose three seniors from a team that went 15-11 and finished tied for third in the Northwest Conference.
Stay with HoopDirt for the latest college basketball coaching news and rumors.
