DSU hires Delaware high school coaching mainstay as men's basketball coach

Delaware State University is hiring one of the area’s most successful coaches to lead its struggling men’s basketball program.

He just has never coached a college basketball game before.

But Stan Waterman will rely on his energy, people skills and considerable basketball knowledge to clear that hurdle.

He’ll certainly face greater challenges while taking over a program that hasn’t finished above .500 since 2011-12 and was barred from its 2021 conference tournament due to previous academic woes.

The Sanford School coach’s hiring will be officially announced Friday, DSU spokesman Steve Newton told Delawareonline/The News Journal.

“For every high school coach, I imagine the dream is to someday become a Division I head coach,” Waterman said Thursday afternoon, “and I’ve had a few opportunities in the past to at least join somebody else’s staff as an assistant.

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“When this opportunity became available and to be able to do that in my own state, in my own backyard and not uproot my family certainly made it interesting. And I have to say with the wonderful work that [president] Tony Allen is doing down at Delaware State University – everything is on the rise – it seems like a great, great time to become a part of that institution and that family."

Waterman, 55, is a former Howard High and University of Delaware point guard. He became Sanford coach in 1991-1992 after one year each as an assistant at Wilmington University and at Sanford.

In 30 seasons, he guided the Warriors to 571 wins, 10 state championship games and eight titles, including the last two in 2019 and 2021. His 2020 team reached the state semifinals before the COVID-19 pandemic’s arrival shut down the tournament.

There were more than 90 applicants for the job.

When Waterman earned the Tubby Raymond Award as 2016 state Coach of the Year from the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association, former Sanford point guard Kenny Mitchell sang his praises.

"Stan is somebody that you want to run through a wall for," said Mitchell, who led NCAA Division I in assists at Dartmouth, "but he's also someone who cares deeply about you as a person."  

Waterman replaces Eric Skeeters, who was dismissed in April after three seasons during which the Hornets went 16-64 overall and 8-35 in the MEAC. They had just one victory over a Division I foe while going 3-16 in 2020-21. Skeeters had been an assistant at several programs before getting the DSU job.

Several Delaware State players, including second-team All-MEAC guard Myles Carter and third-team All-MEAC guard Pinky Wiley, then entered the transfer portal. Wiley is headed to Hampton.

Delaware State will also announce the hiring of Towson assistant E.C. Hill as women’s basketball coach. She’ll replace Dave Caputo, also let go in April after three seasons. The DSU women have had 13 straight losing seasons, including 3-12 in 2020-21.

In announcing the coaching changes in April, Allen had told DSU it was time to “chart a new, bolder path" for the school’s athletic future centered on academics, culture, community and "an unquenchable HBCU spirit."

“Today, I firmly believe that in coaches Hill and Waterman, we have found the individuals of quality who will lead their programs to a winning tradition,” Allen wrote in an email to Delawareonline/The News Journal Thursday, “and, more importantly, continue to mold the young women and men who play for them into the leaders that our global community needs.’’

Waterman faces a from-the-ground-up rebuilding job.

“It’s June and that’s the busy time in college basketball in recruiting,” Waterman said. “I’ve got to put together a staff and make an assessment of the roster that we have and try to figure out what direction we go.

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“But the biggest challenge is to make sure that I try to create and establish a culture. I think that’s critical. When I say that I’m talking about winning the right way and I mean winning in the classroom and winning in the community as well as on the court.”

There is not a rich history of men’s basketball at Delaware State.

The Hornets have not finished .500 or better in men’s basketball since going 18-18 in 2014-15, when they lost in the MEAC title game and played in the College Basketball Invitational.

The Hornets made their only NCAA Tournament in 2005 under coach Greg Jackson after winning MEAC regular-season and tournament titles while finishing 19-14.  

They won the next two MEAC titles as well but lost in the conference tournament and settled for National Invitation Tournament berths, winning a first-round game in 2006 while going 21-14 and ending up 21-13 the following year.

Delaware State has had just two winning seasons since.

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The school hired a high school coach before to lead its men’s basketball program and it didn’t go well.

In 1983, Joe Dean Davison was hired after going 224-40 in 10 years at Dunbar in Washington, D.C. He was fired after two seasons at DelState, largely due to problems off the court.

Even though Waterman is making a significant move up to the college level, he’ll use what he did at Sanford, the private school in Hockessin with high academic standards, as somewhat of a model.

Numerous Sanford players went on to play and excel at the collegiate level, with recent graduate Nnanna Njoku now bound for Villanova and Jyare Davis recently landing at Delaware. Waterman has also been a coach on United States youth national teams.

“I think the idea and the premise and the philosophies are the same,” said Waterman, who is dean of students and assistant athletic director at Sanford.

“Establishing a work ethic, a positive attitude, having success, competing in the classroom as well as on the court, being involved in the community. Those are the things that I hope to establish in the minds of the people in the program.”

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.