Penn College Names Lemasters Full-Time Men's Basketball Head Coach
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Pennsylvania College of Technology Department of Athletics has named Chris Lemasters the new head coach of the men's basketball program. Lemasters served as the interim head coach for the second half of the 2011-12 season and becomes only the second men's basketball coach in Penn College history.
"He performed excellently as the interim while bringing a much-needed energy and excitement back to our program," said Scott Kennell, director of athletics. "Coach Lemasters' past experiences enabled him to provide excellent leadership and guidance throughout the second half of the season. Because of his efforts, I have decided to elevate him to our next head coach."
"I'm extremely excited about getting a full year to work with the guys," Lemasters said. "We started to come on at the end and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish with a full preseason together. It was a difficult year for the players especially, but I have a wonderful group of players that supported the team and each other through the ups and downs. By bringing that core group back for another year, I'm really excited to get in the gym next fall."
Lemasters is no stranger to the area, having grown up in Mansfield. He was a three-year varsity starter for the program and captained the team in his junior and senior years. He attended Alfred (N.Y.) University, where he was a four-year letter winner and three-year captain for the Saxon men's basketball team.
The Wildcats ended the season 4-20 overall and 4-11 in the Penn State University Athletic Conference. Lemasters is already looking forward to the 2012-13 season.
"My main goal next year is to make the playoffs," he said. "In the second half of the league schedule, we were very competitive against a number of the current PSUAC playoff teams. Hopefully we'll have a deeper team and limit some of the mistakes we made this past year with turnovers and that will happen."