After an extensive search that featured over 200 applicants, Centre College is pleased to announce the hiring of Ryan Wiersma as its new assistant men’s basketball coach.

A native of Newark, Ohio and 2009 graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, Wiersma has spent the last four years as Director of Basketball Operations at his alma mater under head coach Jeff Neubauer. In 2013-14 Wiersma played a role in the building and overseeing of an Eastern Kentucky team that won the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and advanced to play Kansas in the NCAA Tournament in St. Louis, Mo.

"We couldn’t be more excited to announce that Ryan will be joining our Centre basketball family," said head coach Greg Mason. "During the interview process, what quickly impressed us about Ryan was his offensive insight, which has been helped by working for two of the best offensive minds in college basketball in Jeff Neubauer and Mike Maker. I would like to welcome Ryan to the Centre community, and we look forward to his upcoming contributions to our program."

Prior to his work at Eastern Kentucky, Wiersma spent one year as an assistant coach at Division III Williams College in Massachusetts. In that one year, Wiersma helped coach a Williams team to a 30-2 record in the 2009-10 season and a berth in the NCAA Division III National Championship game.

As a player at Eastern Kentucky from 2004-09, Wiersma was a part of two NCAA Tournament teams, including the 2005 team that played the University of Kentucky in Indianapolis, Ind. and set a program record for wins at the time, as well as the 2007 team that played top-ranked North Carolina in Winston-Salem, N.C. Wiersma started in 24 games in his senior season at EKU and finished second on the team with 71 assists.

Wiersma holds a bachelor’s degree in general studies from EKU and is currently working on his master’s degree in sports administration.

Wiersma joins Mason and assistant coach Ronnie Bottoms on the current Centre men’s basketball staff. The 2014-15 Colonels will look to continue the momentum from last year’s campaign in which they went 24-5 overall, 13-1 in the Southern Athletic Association, won SAA regular season and tournament championships, and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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