Seton Hall will hire Iona coach Kevin Willard as the successor to Bobby Gonzalez, the school confirmed on Sunday.
Willard will be introduced at a press conference on Wednesday.
Willard, whose father, Ralph Willard, is a veteran coach, has turned the Gaels around in just three seasons. He was hired in 2007 after a 2-28 season. This season, Iona was 21-10, 12-6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, to finish third in the conference and Kevin Willard was named coach of the year in the league.
Willard is 45-49, including 27-27 in the MAAC, during his Iona tenure.
Not a surprise when you
Not a surprise when you consider how little Iona supports sports programs over the last years.
They allowed Hockey to fold, Football to fold and now they obviously send a message about Basketball to current team members, future recruits ect.
Any current Athlete or perspective student looking to include NCAA Sports as part of the package would be crazy to consider Iona College.
You can thank Brother Ligouri’s low priority for Collegiate athletics as a root cause.
The good news if you want Catholic Private Colleges and you want sports programs to be part of your college experience there are many choices out there.
Choices?
Like Fordham Basketball at 2 and 20? St John’s which had its day in 1986? Manhattan at 8 and whatever? St Peters and Seton Hall are in NJ so they do not exist.
Hire Fran Fischella and Iona B-Ball will matter again. On top of that bring back the rivalries. Iona MUST play Fordham and some other NY schools outside the MAAC. Its what tehy do in Philly with the Big 5
As for the other sports Iona had no right to try to feild a football team especially at the expense of their solid hockey program. Frank Bretti did an outsanding job with that team and they kicked a solid team and very good coach to the curb. Iona ripped the passion for hockey out of New Rochelle born and bred coach.
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