FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        RELEASE NO. 83-09

WEST POINT NAMES MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – Oct. 3, 2009

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, Lt. Gen. Buster Hagenbeck and Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson announced today that Zach Spiker has been named as the new men’s basketball head coach at West Point.

“We couldn’t be more excited to name Zach Spiker as the head coach of our men’s basketball program,” Hagenbeck said.  “Zach impressed us with his high-energy level, intimate knowledge of our program and well-conceived plan to deliver a championship to the Army program.”

“We conducted a national search and spoke to a tremendous pool of candidates,” Anderson said.  “Throughout the process, one individual clearly rose to the top.”

One of the architects behind the recent resurgence of the men’s basketball program at Cornell University, Spiker has served as an assistant under head coach Steve Donahue the past five years.  Spiker helped the Big Red to upper-division finishes in the Ivy League during each of his five seasons in Ithaca, N.Y.

Spiker graduated from Ithaca in 2000, earning a bachelor’s degree in communications. He received a master’s degree in sport management from West Virginia in the spring of 2004. 

Spiker will begin his new duties at Army immediately.

A formal press conference to introduce Zach Spiker as West Point’s 30th men’s basketball head coach will be held in Randall Hall Auditorium on Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.

For more information go to GoArmySports.com.

About West Point
Ranked the “Top College in the Country” by Forbes and “Top Public Liberal Arts College” by US News & World Report, the U.S. Military Academy is a four-year co-educational federal undergraduate liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. The world's preeminent leader development institution, it was founded in 1802 as America's first college of engineering.  Its mission remains constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.  For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu.

.

.