Southern Vermont College Interim Director of Athletics Sharief Hashim announced that Mike Quinn has retired from being the head women’s basketball coach for the Mountaineers.
Hashim will assume the interim head position for the remainder of the 2016-17 season as the College conducts a search for its new coach.
“Coach Quinn has been an integral part of our athletic department and will be greatly missed,” Hashim said. “Our women’s basketball coach for seven and a half years, he is also the program’s all-time wins leader and has coached some of the best players in SVC women’s basketball history.”
Quinn had been with Southern Vermont since the fall of 2008 when he was hired as the College’s head softball coach while also being an assistant for the women’s basketball team. He then took over the hoops squad for the 2009-10 campaign and went on to rack up the most wins (55) in program history.
“I feel privileged to have been a part of SVC Athletics for the last nine years,” Quinn commented. “Coaching my players has left me with lasting memories. As for the future of the women’s basketball program, my wish is that it continues to flourish. Although I won’t be coaching, I plan on being the team’s biggest fan for the rest of this year and for many years to come.”
Quinn had a wealth of first-time success in his two head coaching positions at SVC, that trend starting with his very first victory as a Mountaineer. In the spring of 2009, he helped the Southern Vermont softball team break a 46-game losing streak which dated back to 2006.
In his stint as the women’s basketball leader, Quinn led SVC to the team’s first-ever playoff appearance by making it into the 2015 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) postseason; that year, the Mountaineers chalked up their first winning record (17-11) since 1993-94, tallied the program’s most-ever wins, and won its first-ever playoff game. Southern Vermont returned to the NECC tournament in 2016 as Quinn became the team’s first coach to crack the 50-win plateau.
Quinn led some of the best players to ever wear the Southern Vermont uniform during his tenure including Alyssa Davis ‘12 (SVC/SJC Hall of Fame Class of 2016) who he coached on both the softball diamond and basketball parquet. He also mentored and instructed Joa Claircius ‘12 and Amber Flagg ’16, two of the program’s three 1,000 career point scorers. Under Quinn’s guidance, Flagg became Southern Vermont’s first women’s basketball player to collect an all-conference first squad selection as she was named to the All-NECC First Team in 2014 before following that up with another pair of top team honors the following two seasons.
Hashim will take the reins of the team for the spring semester as the Mountaineers push to make it into the playoffs for the third-straight year. He is no stranger to coaching on the court, bringing a slew of basketball experience to his new role. Hashim was an assistant for the College’s varsity men’s team and the head coach of SVC’s junior varsity men’s crew from April of 2013 until this past fall.
Prior to that, he was the head varsity boys’ coach at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland since the 2008-09 season. Earlier in his career, Hashim was an assistant varsity boys’ coach at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland— a position that saw him work with now-SVC head men’s basketball coach Dan Engelstad for three years while Engelstad was a player for the Vikings.
“Finding a coach midyear can be challenging,” Hashim noted about taking the post. “Ideally, we wanted someone who was already part of the College community and knew the players. I believed my coaching experience prepared me to step in on an interim basis. I look forward to continuing the program Coach Quinn has established and placing our student-athletes in the best position to be successful.”
Hashim takes to the court for his first game as a head collegiate coach on Saturday when the Mountaineers visit Mitchell College to restart the NECC schedule.
Photo Courtesy SVC Athletics
http://svcathletics.com/information/2016-17/quinn_retires_hashim_takes_interim
Tagged with: DIII Mike Quinn NECC Sharief Hashim Southern Vermont
