Men's Basketball

Kean Names St. Peter's Kurzinsky Head Men's Basketball Coach

UNION, N.J. (7/3/07) - Rob Kurzinsky, an assistant coach at Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, has been named the new head men's basketball coach at Kean University.  Kurzinsky inherits a program that finished 13-12 a year ago and just missed the New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs.

"We are confident that the men's basketball program is in good hands," stated Kean Director of Athletics Glenn Hedden.  "Rob has tremendous experience at all levels of the game and is a proven recruiter who can attract quality student-athletes to Kean." 

With 16 years of experience, Kurzinsky most recently worked for a pair of tri-state area Division I schools. He was the assistant men's basketball coach and recruiting coordinator at Saint Peter's College last season and the director of men's basketball operations at Columbia University in 2005-06. 

Prior to his arrival at the Ivy League school, Kurzinsky was the head men's basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y., for five seasons. During his tenure at Rockland, all 23 of his players graduated with associate degrees and advanced to four-year institutions to continue their academic and athletic careers. Kurzinsky helped revive a program that had won just nine games in the four years prior to his arrival, steering Rockland to a 40-38 record in Region XV play during his five seasons at the helm.

"This is a great opportunity for me to coach in one of the strongest conferences in all of Division III and to be part of a strong athletic department," said Kurzinsky. "Kean has enjoyed great success throughout the department and I want to infuse that championship mentality into the men's basketball program."

Kean baseball captured the 2007 Division III national championship on the heels of the women's basketball team's march to the Elite Eight in the spring. Kurzinsky sees no reason why men's basketball at Kean cannot complete for titles as well. "Our facilities are brand new and better than anything I've seen in Division III," he explained. "And this university sits squarely in perhaps the most fertile ground for basketball talent in the country. We have a lot to look forward to and I can't wait to get started."

Kurzinsky began his coaching career in 1992 as the assistant varsity boys' basketball coach at Church Farms School in the suburbs of Philadelphia while completing his undergraduate degree at West Chester University. Two years later, Kurzinsky moved to girls' basketball when he was named the assistant varsity coach at Unionville (Pa.) High School, a post he held until 1996.

In 1996, Kurzinsky earned his first collegiate coaching job when he was named the head coach of the women's basketball and softball teams at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pa. He then moved to Harcum College as the head coach of women's basketball and volleyball before making the jump to Division I Manhattan College of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, where he was the assistant women's basketball coach and recruiting coordinator from 1998 until 2000.

A 1994 graduate of West Chester University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education, Kurzinsky currently resides in Hoboken, N.J.