Longtime coach D.P. Harris leaving Saint Vincent hoops program
For the first time in more than a decade, Saint Vincent is looking for a men’s basketball coach.
Don Paul “D.P.” Harris, the man in charge of the Bearcats for 16 years, stepped down to take a position at a college in Florida.
The Bearcats just finished a 22-5 season and won a regular-season title in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. Harris was the PAC Coach of the Year.
Harris will be the men’s basketball coach, assistant athletic director and director of development at NAIA St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla.
“We are grateful to coach Harris for running a quality basketball program, being a great recruiter and always emphasizing the importance of academics with his team,” said Br. Norman Hipps, O.S.B., president of Saint Vincent. “We will miss him, and we wish him well as he takes on a new challenge.”
“Thank you to all the current and former players for a memorable time at SVC. Once a Bearcat, always a Bearcat” - Coach Harris pic.twitter.com/hVNgnA7nF2
— SVC Men's Basketball (@SVCHoops) March 8, 2019
Harris spent 22 years at Saint Vincent, six as an assistant, before taking over in 2003. Harris went 318-126 and led the Bearcats to the NCAA Division III Tournament four times and two NAIA Sweet 16 appearances. The team won four straight conference titles from 2013-16.
“Today is a new beginning for me and every player on the basketball program at STU. We are going to be a family environment,” Harris said in a St. Thomas news release. “To our basketball and nonbasketball alumni: I want to know you, that we are building something together, and I want you to invest in our success.”
St. Thomas went 11-16 this season and reached the Sun Conference semifinals.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.
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