Athletic Director Matt Kilcullen Jr. has announced the hiring of Jim Harter as the new head Mercy College women’s basketball coach.

“Jim Harter brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our women’s basketball program,” commented Athletic Director Matt Kilcullen Jr. “As a former head men’s basketball coach at Pace University, Jim has shown that he can successfully recruit and develop young student athletes. The program is in great hands with Jim Harter.”

“I would like to thank Matt Kilcullen and the administration at Mercy for trusting me with the future of the women’s basketball program,” said Harter. “I am excited to be getting back into college coaching and looking forward to the challenge of leading the Mercy program. We will work hard to develop our student-athletes both on and off the floor and to build a program that the Mercy community can be proud of.”

Harter brings extensive experience to the Mercy sidelines, having previously served as the head men’s basketball coach at Pace University for 16 years. While serving as the head coach at Pace, Harter’s teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times when in its previous basketball history the Setters had qualified for the NCAA Tournament just one time. Harter has been a strong proponent of academics throughout his coaching career as during his time at Pace his teams achieved nearly a 100 percent graduation rate. His 2012 team was honored for having the highest team GPA (3.05) in the Northeast 10 Conference.

During his 16 years at Pace, Harter led the Setters to the 16-team NE-10 Conference Tournament in all but two seasons. In six of those seasons, Harter guided Pace to top four finishes and three times the Setters finished league runner-up.

Harter has also had success on the recruiting front, having signed 10 of the 11 All-League players he coached, including two All-Americans. The past three years, Harter has remained involved with the game he loves by starting his own basketball academy business in Westchester working with girls and boys ages 7-to-17.

Harter has had a great passion for basketball since he was a child, as his father, Dick Harter, was a college coach at Penn, Oregon and Penn State before coaching for nearly 30 years in the NBA.

After graduating from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science Degree in History and Journalism, Harter got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. As a member of the Blazers staff, the team qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 1990.

Following two years as a graduate assistant at UAB, Harter headed to Tulane University where he served as an assistant coach for two years. Tulane qualified for the NCAA Tournament in both years Harter was on staff as he served as the scouting coordinator and assisted with on-the-floor coaching, recruiting and academics.

In 1993, Harter joined the staff at Pace where he served as an assistant until being promoted to head coach in 1998.

Harter currently resides in Yorktown Heights, New York.

http://mercyathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2015-16/releases/20160429iirtng

 

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