UIndy men’s basketball head coach Stan Gouard announced the addition of John Spruance to his staff on Tuesday afternoon. Spruance joins the coaching staff for the 2017-18 campaign after spending the past five seasons at Lewis University.
During his 152 games on the Flyers’ bench, Lewis boasted a .664 win percentage and won 101 contests. The Flyers made consecutive NCAA tournaments in 2015 and 2016, winning a first-round contest in 2015. Spruance assisted in leading the Flyers to a GLVC title in 2016 to earn the automatic bid to the Midwest regional.
Over his five seasons, he coached 12 all-conference players, four GLVC all-tournament selections, two GLVC Freshman of the Year winners, and one All-American. He also served as the recruiting coordinator for the program, which included organizing on- and off-campus visits and expanding the Lewis footprint across the Midwest.
Since 2013, the Lewis men’s basketball program has been stellar in the classroom with a 3.21 cumulative GPA. Spruance also implemented a state-of-the-art weight program at Lewis, along with managing team travel and organizing the program’s Elite Camp.
Gouard believes Spruance can have an immediate impact on the program at UIndy. “After going through a rigorous search and interviewing several qualified candidates, it became apparent John is the perfect fit for us.
“Having seeing John’s work over the last five years in the GLVC, I am confident he will help us with our program’s upward trajectory, while at the same time maintaining continuity.”
Spruance was also the Director of Youth Program and head coach for the 16U team for the West Michigan Lakers. He accumulated a record of 37-15 on the bench for 16U, while going 41-11 at the helm of the 15U squad. In his first season coaching the Lakers, 10 players went on to play collegiate basketball.
Prior to his time at Lewis, Spruance was an assistant coach at Holland High School in Holland, Mich., where he designed and led offseason player development. He helped lead Holland to a conference title in 2010 and district championship in 2009.
In the summer of 2010, Spruance was a scouting consultant for NAIA Division 2 member Indiana Tech. He then spent nine months at the University of Hawai’i as a video coordinator and information technology assistant. There, Spruance led all video aspects, which included scouts for each game and player, equipment for home and away games, and creating highlight tapes for players.
Spruance will assume assistant coach duties immediately.
