Alaska Fairbanks head women’s basketball coach Cody Bench has announced the hiring of Brett Sawyer to the position of assistant coach for the upcoming 2015-16 season.
“I am very excited to join the Alaska Nanook program,” said Sawyer. “It is a big step up for me and I am happy to be part of such a great team and an impressive conference. I am an avid outdoors-man and look forward to experiencing Alaska and helping build a winning program at UAF.”
Sawyer most recently spent four years as an assistant coach for Snow College, a junior college located in Ephraim, Utah. There, he helped the Badgers to a 21-8 overall record last season where they opened the campaign with 14 straight wins and were ranked as high as 12th in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
Snow College, who advanced to the second round of the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament in 2014-15, improved from 2012 to 2015 with the help of Sawyer and the players he recruited, turning in one of the best seasons in program history last season. Snow also claimed the WBCA award for the highest team GPA in the NJCAA in two of his four seasons.
In addition to his time as an assistant at Snow College, Sawyer served as the head coach of the Utah Diamondbacks AAU program, leading them to a BIG MTN JAM tournament championship in 2013.
“I’m happy to announce Brett as our new assistant coach,” said Bench. “He will bring energy and passion to our team. He’s worked with student athletes at the junior college level and identified and recruited talented high school players for his previous program which I believe he will be able to do here in Alaska as well.”
Alaska, who had its best start to the season in program history after 16 games, with a 12-4 record, last season, and boasted its most wins since 2005 and tied for its most wins since joining the GNAC, start the 2015-16 campaign in mid-November as it hosts Cal State Stanislaus and Dixie State in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge.
http://www.alaskananooks.com/news/2015/6/3/WBB_0603150123.aspx
Tagged with: Alaska DII GNAC
