Rob Kurzinsky enters his third season as the head coach of
the Cougars.
In his first season the Cougars advanced to the New Jersey Athletic
Conference playoffs for the first time since 2000-01, finishing
third in the NJAC South Division. At the conclusion of the
2007-2008 season his team was honored by the Collegiate Basketball
Officials Association with the Sam Schoenfeld Award. The
Schoenfeld Award is presented to the college or university, which
in the judgement of the CBOA membership best exemplifies "the
highest degree of sportsmanship, character, and ethics among their
players, coaches and spectators."
The Cougars returned to the NJAC tournament again in 2008-09 as KU finished with an overall 12-14 mark.
With 17 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.
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 Woodbridge, N.J. with his wife Hitomi.
