DANTE LASTING
Sports Editor
The Fredonia men’s basketball team is moving on from their head coach.
On March 3, the university’s HR department sent out a vacancy announcement for the position. Philip Seymore was hired in 2013 and fulfilled his contract, which ended after this season. The Canisius graduate brought over 25 years of coaching experience, but had mixed results over the seven years at Fredonia.
Fredonia’s Athletic Director Jerry Fisk weighed in on the coach’s release.
“When coaches’ contracts are up, that’s the time we take a look at how everything is going with the program,” Fisk explained. “You will never hear me say anything bad about coach Seymore. He is a tremendous human being who cares about his players a lot, but we had not seen the sustained success that we were hoping during his tenure as head coach.”
The Leader did an interview with the former coach and some players when he was first hired in 2013. Jordan Debolt interviewed Seymore and he was asked why he chose Fredonia. He said that “Fredonia State also presented a challenge of getting the basketball program to the NCAA tournament, which has not happened in a long time.”
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Philip Seymore was unable to bring the team to the NCAA tournament during his time at Fredonia.
Debolt also interviewed some of the players on that team about the new head coach.
Players like junior guard Rasean Parris and sophomore guard Kevin Federation are excited to get going and were impressed by what they saw in their chance to meet their new coach.
“I’ve gotten a chance to meet Coach Seymore,” Federation said, “and my first impression was that he is all business, and he knows a lot about helping his players improve on their own individual games.”
Parris was impressed by what he saw as well. When asked about what the new season would bring as far as adjustments, Parris was a man of few words.
“Not sure as of yet,” he said. “Both (Seymore and former Head Coach Kevin Moore) have willful personas, but only the season will tell. We are undermanned; however, if we come together, the sky’s the limit.”
Seymore led the team to a 6-19 record in his first season and did not have much success on the court here at Fredonia. His best season came in the 2016-2017 season with 10 wins, and his overall record was 39-133.
The hiring process is underway to find his replacement. The athletic department has put together a search committee for this position. The university is accepting applications for the position of men’s basketball head coach until March 23. Then they will conduct multiple over-the-phone and in-person interviews until they can select the best candidate.