Former Tarleton State assistant coach in the 2022-23 season, Zach Settembre, returns to Tarleton State to join head coach Billy Gillispie‘s staff for the 2024-25 season.
“We are extremely excited to have Zach back at Tarleton State,” said head coach Billy Gillispie. “He was outstanding in his time here before and we look forward to having him here again. Zach is a tireless worker with a great approach to coaching and teaching and can do everything to help the players and program succeed. He’s a great recruiter who has a passion for bringing the best players he can to Tarleton State. He can ‘do it all’ and will become a division 1 head coach in the very near future. Hes been a winner everywhere hes been and were lucky to have him here to help us in our quest to play in the NCAA tournament.”
As a member of coach Gillispie’s staff, Settembre will assist in recruiting and academics. He will also play a role coaching on the floor, community involvement and promoting the players and the program.
Settembre spent the 2022-23 season on Texans’ bench where he helped guide the squad to the most wins in their Division I era at the time, posting a 17-17 record. In his first season at Tarleton, the team posted a 12-2 home record and landed a spot in the Paradise Jam Championship. The Texans earned their first bid to the WAC Tournament as the seventh seed. The Texans knocked off 10th-seeded UTRGV, 74-70, before falling to second-seeded Utah Valley, 72-58. The squad earned its first non-WAC Tournament postseason berth in their D1 era, earning the seventh seed in the CBI. Tarleton dropped to the 10th-seeded Radford Highlanders, 72-70 in overtime.
“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to rejoin Coach Gillispie’s staff at Tarleton State. Coach Gillispie is an elite teacher of the game of basketball, and more importantly, a leader who relentlessly helps his players and coaches pursue excellence on and off the court,” said coach Settembre. “I have seen first hand the positive impact he has on the young men he coaches. The relationships forged within the Tarleton men’s basketball program are forever, and I am very thankful for another opportunity to work alongside the best in the industry.”
Settembre joined the Texan staff in the 2022-23 season, before departing at the end of the season to join the New Mexico State. In his one season on the Aggies bench, Settembre helped the defense be one of the toughest in the CUSA.
He broke into the Division I ranks in the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach at Coastal Carolina. The Louisville, Kentucky native was instrumental in engineering one of the most successful seasons in Coastal Carolina men’s basketball history during his year in Myrtle Beach. The Chanticleers posted a 19-14 overall record and won three postseason games to advance to the finals of The Basketball Classic. Settembre coached Vince Cole to All-Sun Belt Conference second team selection. The senior guard led the Chanticleers in scoring and ranked fifth in the Sun Belt and ranked 27th among all D1 players.
Settembre previously served as the head coach for Tallahassee Community College (TCC) from 2019-2021 after serving as an assistant coach for the 2018-19 season. Settembre led TCC to unprecedented success during his two-year run as head coach. He led the Eagles to back-to-back Panhandle Conference Championships and a 46-9 overall record while at the helm. Settembre was named the Panhandle Conference Coach of the Year in both seasons. He joined current D1 head coaches Chris Jans (Mississippi State), Steve Forbes (Wake Forest) and former D1 coach Greg Heiar (New Mexico State) as one of four coaches to claim Panhandle Conference Coach of the Year honors in their first season as head coach.
In Settembre’s two seasons at the helm of the Eagles, he produced a 46-9 record, two Panhandle Conference Championships, an appearance in NJCAA Region VIII/FCSAA State Tournament and an at-large bid to the NJCAA National Tournament for the first time in school history. Settembre’s team produced the Conference Player of the Year in each of the two season and the Conference Newcomer of the Year in each of the two seasons. In his second year, the Eagles posted a school-record 13-game winning streak. All 15 players from his first team signed National Letters of Intent with four-year schools, nine going D1. Two of Settembre’s players were named to the FCSAA All-State men’s basketball team, marking the first time TCC had two members named to the all-state team in more than a decade.
He received his first head coaching job as the lead man at Louisville Collegiate School for the 2017-18 season. Settembre guided the program to a school-record 23 victories and a trip to the All “A” State Tournament. He was named the KABC (Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches) and Courier-Journal Seventh Region Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.
Settembre is a 2012 graduate of Syracuse and served as a student manager under Jim Boeheim. Following his college graduation, Settembre returned home to Kentucky and worked as a freshman head boys basketball coach at Iroquois High School (2012-13) and Ballard High School (2013-14). He then pivoted to the college game, as he joined legendary coach Happy Osborne’s staff at Kentucky Wesleyan College.
Settembre returns to Tarleton State Basketball Staff
