Maryland Jap Shore has referred to as upon an HBCU teaching legend as its subsequent males’s basketball coach.
On Saturday, the college introduced it employed Cleo Hill Jr. because the Hawks coach.
We’re excited to announce and welcome @CleoHillJr as our new head males’s basketball coach!
Be a part of me in welcoming Coach Hill to @UMESNews!https://t.co/ysFeGhNai1 https://t.co/4eOmln9Cg1
— VP Tara A. Owens (@VPTaraOwens) June 1, 2024
“We’re enthusiastic about the way forward for Hawk basketball as we welcome Cleo Hill, Jr. to UMES, mentioned athletics director Tara A. Owens.
Coach Hill stood out as the fitting particular person to steer our males’s basketball program. Coach Hill has a confirmed observe of constructing profitable packages with success at Cheyney, Shaw, and Winston-Salem State. He has an amazing repute as a coach and has a terrific imaginative and prescient for Hawk basketball. Beneath his management, we’ll proceed to achieve new heights of success on the court docket, within the classroom, and the group.”
Hill spent the earlier six seasons as the top coach at Winston Salem State, the place his father, Cleo Hill Sr., was a star basketball participant from 1957-1961. He compiled a 90-50 total file and 55-29 throughout the CIAA. He led the Rams to CIAA Match championships in 2020 and 2023 and was named CIAA Coach of the 12 months twice ( 2020 and 2023).
Hill was additionally the top coach of Cheney College for 5 seasons. He compiled an total 55-67 file, together with a 23-8 file in the course of the 2003-04 marketing campaign. He additionally led the Wolves to 2 NCAA Division II Playoff appearances.
Winston Salem State athletic director Etienne Thomas provided excessive reward of their now former head coach:
“I wish to thank Coach Hill for returning to his roots from childhood to steer the WSSU males’s basketball group and etching his place within the historical past books of WSSU males’s basketball whereas preserving the legacy, excellence, traditions, and championship success of those that got here earlier than him. I’m grateful to have had the chance to serve with somebody who put the well-being of the student-athletes first, was coachable, and was keen to pivot.
WSSU affiliate head coach Eric Wilson will lead this system as performing head coach as a nationwide season begins.
