Leading the school to its most successful season in six years, Jim Hayford concluded his first season as head coach of the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team with a 15-17 record overall and 8-8 record in the Big Sky Conference to place fourth.

His team improved by five victories from the year before, as the Eagles equaled their most wins since Eastern made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004. The Eagles won their first postseason game since 2006, beating Idaho State in the quarterfinals (81-75) before falling to eventual champion Montana (74-66) in the semifinals.

In addition, Eastern won six road games – its most since EWU won seven in the 2002-03 season and six the year after. And Eastern’s average attendance of 2,286 was double the 1,101 average of the 2010-11 season when EWU finished 10-20 overall and 7-9 in the league. Eastern’s crowds of 3,617 versus Montana State on Jan. 28 and 3,512 against Montana on Jan. 26 rank ninth and 10th, respectively, on EWU’s all-time list of single game recorded attendance.

And for the first time since 2006, the Eagles also had their first non-losing conference season, hosted and won their first game in the Big Sky Conference Championship and had their first player honored on the All-Big Sky Conference first team (Cliff Colimon) and BSC All-Tournament squad (Colimon). In addition, Eastern also was home of the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year (Collin Chiverton) – only the third such honor for an Eagle and the first since 2002.

 “I’m really, really proud of our players, and proud of the season we had,” said Hayford, who has also had tremendous fund-raising success through his Sixth-Man Club. “We advanced Eastern Basketball further than it had in a long time, and that’s what I want our players to hang their hat on.”

After spending 10 seasons building nearby Whitworth University into a NCAA Division III powerhouse, Hayford was announced as Eastern’s new head men’s basketball coach on March 29, 2011. He is Eastern’s 17th head coach in history and ninth at the NCAA Division I level (since 1983-84).

In his tenure at the helm of the Pirates, Hayford had a record of 217-57 and a winning percentage of .792. He coached the Pirates to eight 20-win seasons, six appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament (including the last five seasons in a row), five Northwest Conference titles, three NCAA DIII Sweet 16 appearances (2008, 2010, 2011) and one Elite Eight appearance (2011).

“We are hiring the right person at the right time for Eastern basketball,” Eastern athletic director Bill Chaves said when Hayford was hired. “Coach Hayford has had tremendous success on the court as his record attests. He has also had tremendous success with the academics and leadership of student-athletes. And his ability to get into the community is outstanding. We could not be more excited in bringing Jim and his family into the EWU family.”

Hayford, 44, earned five NWC Coach of the Year awards and was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as the West Region Coach of the Year in both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. In Hayford’s final two years at Whitworth, the Pirates were 54-5 overall and 31-1 in league play. Whitworth was ranked 21-consecutive times in the D3hoops.com NCAA Division III rankings over Hayford’s final three seasons at Whitworth.

During his 10 seasons leading the Pirates, Hayford coached six Northwest Conference Players of the Year -- Bryan Depew (2003), Lance Pecht (2006), Bryan Williams (2007), Ryan Symes (2008), Nate Montgomery (2010) and Michael Taylor (2011). During the same period, 25 Whitworth players earned All-NWC honors, including 18 first-team selections.

Hayford said all five positions on the court were represented by those players of the year. He said that illustrates his program’s ability to adjust and adapt.

“We’ve been able to run a system that features the different strengths of great individual players every year at every position,” Hayford explained. “I think I’m adjustable and adaptable to utilize the strengths of our team. We determine what new talent we need to complement our returning players, and then we put together a solid core that can help give our program a winning record.”

“Our goal is to quickly get this program to a winning Big Sky season and post-season success,” he added.

Including his two seasons at Sioux Falls (1999-2001), Hayford's win-loss record is 269-102 (.727) in 13 seasons as a head coach. At the time he left Whitworth, his career winning percentage ranked among the top 10 among all active NCAA Division III coaches.

“It’s a dream come true to lead and coach a NCAA Division I program,” Hayford added. “I feel like I’m joining a winner when you look at what the Eastern Athletic Department has been able to accomplish, including the national championship in football. The future is great here in Cheney and I’m so proud to be an Eagle. We are looking forward to taking the Eastern basketball program to a new level of success.”

After 10 Years at Whitworth, Relationships Continue . . . 

In his 10 years at Whitworth, Hayford developed solid relationships on a number of levels. Most notably, with his players.

“The basis of my coaching is a highly-relational style,” he explained. “We want our players to be solid and comfortable in their relationship with me -- there needs to be give-and-take, feedback and communication going both ways. The days of a coach doing all the talking and the players doing all the listening is over.

“I’m consistent at finding out what is their best and what they consider excellence, and then hold them to that every day that I coach them,” he continued. “By developing consistency and relationships, insisting on excellence and being able to do things together, we’re going to create a culture where this is a true team. We need to be sold on each other, committed to each other and we need to be able to count on each other. That will be the strength of our program.”

Those relationships extend to the high school coaching community.

“When you live in one place for 10 years, you get to know all of the high school coaches in the state and the region,” he said. “Those relationships transfer. While teams at the Division I level were recruiting one player on a particular team, I was building a great relationship with that coach recruiting another player on that team.”

Like the Eastern football program, which captivated the community and its alumni base with its run to the 2010 NCAA Division I title, Hayford hopes his program does the same in the coming years.

“We want Eastern Washington basketball to be a meeting place where the community wants to come together, take pride in the kind of players that are on the court, want to cheer them on and share in their success,” he said. “We want to bring a lot of people to the party.”

Hayford’s 2010-11 Whitworth Squad Led by Former Eagle Michael Taylor . . .

Whitworth spent three weeks in the 2010-11 season ranked No. 1 in the D3hoops.com NCAA Division III rankings, including the top ranking at the end of the regular season. The Pirates set a school record for victories  and winning percentage in finishing 28-2 (.933), and ended the season ranked fifth nationally after losing at Wooster 76-66 on March 12, 2011. Whitworth advanced to the NCAA Division III Sectional Final (Elite Eight) for the first time in school history, while making its fifth-straight NCAA DIII Tournament appearance. The Pirates also claimed their fifth-straight NWC Tournament title.

Leading the way in Whitworth’s sensational 2010-11 season was Taylor, who averaged 5.7 points and 1.9 assists when he started for EWU as a true freshman in the 2006-07 season. In his lone season playing for the Pirates, he was named the D3hoops.com Men's Player of the Year and was named a first-team All-American by D3hoops.com and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

In addition, Taylor was previously named the NABC West Region Player of the Year, D3hoops.com West Region Player of the Year and Northwest Conference Player of the Year in his only season with the Pirates. He led the team in scoring average (20.3 points per game to rank second in the NWC) and led the Northwest Conference in both free throw percentage (.884) and three-point percentage (.528). He also led the Pirates in assists (3.5 per game to rank third in the NWC). After playing one season at EWU, Taylor transferred to the University of Montana where he was a key contributor off of the bench in two seasons.

In 2009-10, the Pirates put together a school-record 25-game winning streak and finished unbeaten in the Northwest Conference (16-0) en route to a final record of 26-3. The Pirates finished ranked seventh in the D3hoops.com poll.

In 2008-09, Hayford led the Pirates to a 23-6 record and a runner-up finish in the NWC standings. Whitworth then made their fourth national tournament appearance by virtue of winning the NWC Tournament championship game. Whitworth accomplished that despite the graduation of two first-team All-NWC selections, including the conference's Player of the Year (Ryan Symes), following the '07-'08 season.

During the 2007-08 season, Hayford coached Whitworth to its second-consecutive Northwest Conference title and second-straight appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament, where the Pirates advanced to the Sectional Semifinals (third round). Whitworth finished 21-7 overall and Hayford earned his third NWC Coach of the Year award.

In 2006-07, he led Whitworth to a 24-4 record and a conference title, earning his second NWC Coach of the Year honor. His team set the school record for single-season winning percentage (.857), which was later broken by the 2009-10 squad (26-3, .897) and his final team in 2010-11 (28-2, .933). The Pirates advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, losing at the eventual third-place finisher by only two points.

He coached the Pirates to a 20-7 record and to within a game of the NCAA Tournament in the 2005-06 season. The 2004-05 season may have been Hayford's greatest challenge, but also possibly his greatest accomplishment. Rebuilding his team with only one returning starter, Hayford coached the Pirates to five-straight wins to end the season, turning an overall record of 8-11 and an NWC mark of 4-7 into 13-11 and 9-7 finishes.

The Pirates also just missed one of six at-large bids to the 2003-04 NCAA Division III Tournament after the team's third straight top-two finish in the NWC and a 19-6 overall record.

In his second season (2002-03), he led Whitworth to a 23-4 record, a Northwest Conference title and an appearance in the 2003 NCAA Division III Tournament, earning his first Coach of the Year award. In his first season as the head coach at Whitworth in 2001-02, Hayford led the Pirates to a record of 20-7 and a second-place finish in the NWC. It was the second-best coaching debut in Whitworth men’s basketball history. The only coach to start better was Art Smith, whose 1954-55 team finished 21-4 and advanced to the NAIA Tournament.

The Pirates were 13-12 the season before he arrived.

Hayford 37-27 at Sioux Falls in First Collegiate Head Coaching Stop . . .

Prior to coming to Whitworth, Hayford was head coach at the University of Sioux Falls (S.D.), where he compiled a 37-27 record in two seasons. During his inaugural season (1999-2000), he led the Cougars to their first conference playoff appearance in five years. The team finished 15-15 after losing in the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference (SDIC) championship game. Hayford's Cougars finished the 2000-01 season at 22-12 and lost to the eventual NAIA Division II champions (Northwestern College of Iowa) in double overtime in the Great Plains Athletic Conference championship game. His team set a school record for wins in a season. Prior to Hayford's arrival, USF was 9-17 in 1998-99.

Hayford served as the top assistant coach at Azusa Pacific University (Calif.) from 1990-99, including eight seasons under Bill Odell. APU won seven consecutive Golden State Athletic Conference titles during that time and advanced to the NAIA Division I Final Four in each of his final two seasons there.

Hayford also coached at the high school level, leading Contra Costa Christian High School in 1987 and Berean Christian High School from 1988-1990.

Hayford earned his master’s degree in education from Claremont Graduate School in 1991. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social science from Azusa Pacific in 1989. He is a 1985 graduate of Berean Christian, which is located in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Hayford and his wife, Robin, have a daughter, Jayme (17), and son, Joseph (14).

Jim Hayford’s Head Coaching Career

***Season concluded with NCAA Division III Tournament berth.

One-half of a husband-wife coaching duo that helped both their teams to “Elite Eight” national tournament appearances in the 2010-11 season, Craig Fortier enters his second season as associate head coach on the EWU coaching staff. In his first season at Eastern, the Eagles improved by five victories from the year before to finish 15-17 overall and 8-8 in the Big Sky Conference.

Fortier spent the previous four seasons as an assistant to Eastern head coach Jim Hayford at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. In the 2010-11 season, the Pirates finished 28-2 and advanced to the NCAA Division III Sectional Final (Elite Eight) for the first time in school history.

At the same time, his wife Lisa was on the coaching staff for the Gonzaga women’s team, which advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division I Tournament and finished 31-5. The 2012-13 season will be her sixth season coaching for the Bulldogs, who finished the 2011-12 season 14-2 in the West Coast Conference and 28-6 overall en route to a “Sweet 16” appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

During Craig’s four years at Whitworth, the Pirates won 98 of 116 games for a winning rate of 84.5 percent. All four seasons the Pirates advanced to the national tournament and won the Northwest Conference Tournament title.

“I’ve had the pleasure of having Craig as my lead assistant for five years now,” said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. “He was previously at Colorado State and Gonzaga, so he had NCAA Division I experience even before he joined me at Eastern. He’s an outstanding recruiter and understands everything I want to do in terms of attention to detail and program administration. He’s extremely skilled in opponent preparation and has been on coaching staffs that have developed professional basketball players. He’s a great lead assistant for us.”

Fortier came to Whitworth from Colorado State University, where he served as an administrative assistant for the men's basketball team. Prior to his time at CSU, Fortier was a graduate assistant for Gonzaga University for two seasons, as he completed his master’s degree in sport and athletic administration.

Fortier was also an assistant coach at his alma mater, Cal State-Monterey Bay, in the 2003-04 season. He was the most inspirational player as a senior for the Otters before graduating from the school in 2003.

Whitworth spent three weeks in the 2010-11 season ranked No. 1 in the D3hoops.com NCAA Division III rankings, including the top ranking at the end of the regular season. The Pirates set a school record for victories and winning percentage in finishing 28-2 (.933), and ended the season ranked fifth nationally after losing at Wooster 76-66 on March 12, 2011. Whitworth advanced to the NCAA Division III Sectional Final (Elite Eight) for the first time in school history, while making its fifth-straight NCAA DIII Tournament appearance. The Pirates also claimed their fifth-straight NWC Tournament title.

In 2009-10, Whitworth put together a school-record 25-game winning streak and finished unbeaten in the Northwest Conference (16-0) en route to a final record of 26-3. The Pirates finished the season ranked seventh in the D3hoops.com poll.

In 2008-09, Whitworth finished 23-6 and was the runner-up in the NWC standings. The Pirates then made their fourth national tournament appearance by virtue of winning the NWC Tournament championship game.

In Fortier’s first season at Whitworth in 2007-08, the Pirates won the Northwest Conference title and advanced to the Sectional Semifinals (third round) of the NCAA Division III Tournament. Whitworth finished 21-7 overall.

Craig and Lisa attended Cal State-Monterey Bay together and were married in 2006. The former Lisa Mispley served as the coordinator of basketball operations at Gonzaga for two seasons from 2004-06 and spent the 2006-07 season at the University of Northern Colorado, while Craig was at nearby CSU.  At CSUMB, she earned honorable mention All Cal-Pac Conference honors as a junior and was an NAIA Academic All-American in 2003. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in human communications. She earned her master's degree in sport and athletic administration from Gonzaga in 2004.

Craig and Lisa have two sons, Marcus (born in 2010) and Calvin (born April 27, 2012).

Craig Ehlo enters his second season as an assistant coach at the collegiate level, but he has been involved at all levels of basketball his entire life, including 14 seasons as a player in the National Basketball Association.

As a result, Eastern head coach Jim Hayford sees him as a vital cog not only for on-the-floor coaching, but in recruiting as well.

“Craig excels in the area of individual player development,” said Hayford. “That’s a passion of his and something he does well. Everybody on the staff is responsible for recruiting as well, including Craig. When you are recruiting the caliber of player we want to recruit at Eastern, you are talking about players who want to play professional basketball.  So to have somebody on our staff who is a NBA veteran gives us quite a compelling argument why players would want our staff coaching them at Eastern.”

Ehlo settled in Spokane, Wash., after leaving the NBA following the 1996-97 season. He has already been selected to the Washington State University Hall of Fame (2009) and the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame (1996), and was one of 10 inaugural basketball inductees into the Pacific-10 Conference Hall of Honor (2002). In addition, he was one of 12 inaugural inductees into the Lubbock Independent School District Athletics Hall of Honor (2010) and had his jersey retired by Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas (Dec. 21, 1995).

After his retirement from the NBA, Ehlo worked extensively as a television analyst, including full schedules for the Seattle SuperSonics and Gonzaga. He has also worked on broadcasts for his alma mater, Washington State University, as well as EWU.

He spent three seasons as head coach at Rogers High School in Spokane, Wash., from 1998-2001. Ehlo also spent six years coaching in one of the nation’s most esteemed camp programs, the Nike Skills Academy. Ehlo coached high school players while working alongside such current NBA superstars as LeBron James, Steve Nash, Vince Carter, Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Deron Williams. It originally took place in Beaverton, Ore., but is now a traveling camp.

A native of Lubbock, Ehlo played at Odessa Junior College in Texas where he earned honorable mention All-America honors as a sophomore, after leading the Wranglers to a 26-9 record. Ehlo then concluded his collegiate playing career at WSU in Pullman, Wash., and eventually returned to Washington State to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1999.

He helped lead the 1982-83 Cougars to a 22-6 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament where they lost to Virginia and Ehlo’s future NBA teammate, Ralph Sampson. That came after Ehlo scored 18 points in a first-round victory over Weber State of the Big Sky Conference, representing WSU’s first postseason win since 1941. Picked to finish fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference, WSU won seven of its last eight games of the regular season and finished 14-4 in the league and a perfect 14-0 at home at Friel Court.

He was taken in the third round of the 1983 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets. He played 14 NBA seasons with four teams, amassing respectable career totals of 7,492 points (8.6 per game), 2,456 assists (2.8) and 3,139 rebounds (3.6). He played in 873 career games, starting 321, and helped lead his teams to the NBA Playoffs in 10 of his 14 seasons in the league.

Ehlo played on the 1985-86 Houston Rockets team that advanced to the NBA Finals, losing the series 4–2 to the Boston Celtics. He played three total seasons in Houston.

He spent the prime of his career with Cleveland, where he tallied 5,130 points, 1,803 assists, and 2,267 rebounds in seven seasons (1986–1993). He averaged in double figures in scoring for five seasons from 1989-90 to 1993-94, with career-best averages of 13.6 points, 4.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds coming in the ’89-90 campaign. That Rockets team finished 42-40 and lost 3-2 to Philadelphia in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

One season earlier, he was guarding Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer Michael Jordan on May 7, 1989, when Jordan sank his legendary series-clinching jumper in Cleveland in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Ehlo spent three seasons (1993-96) with the Atlanta Hawks, and then signed with the Seattle SuperSonics for the 1996-97 season.

Ehlo was born Aug. 11, 1961, in Lubbock, Texas. His wife, Jani, is also a graduate of WSU. They have three children -- Erica, 23, Austin, 21, and Gavin, 16. Austin plays football as a wide receiver at Whitworth University.

Shantay Legans, a former point guard for winning basketball programs in high school and college, enters his fourth season as an assistant basketball coach for the Eagles.

 “Having Shantay on our staff is a huge plus,” said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. “He’s very loved by the players, and is known all through West Coast basketball circles because of his own playing career. He’s dialed-in to the AAU circuit and knows high school and junior college coaches throughout the region.”

Legans came to Eastern after serving as an assistant coach for two seasons at Laguna Blanca High School in Santa Barbara, Calif. Previously, he was a student assistant coach for Ray Lopes at Fresno State for two seasons before embarking upon a more than three-year career playing professional basketball in Europe. Legans also has experience coaching various AAU teams in California and serving as a personal trainer.

He played at California for three seasons from 1999-2002, helping lead the Golden Bears to a collective record of 61-35 (.635). He then spent his senior season (2003-04) at Fresno State, which finished with a 14-15 record overall and a 10-8 mark in the Western Athletic Conference. He averaged 15.0 points and 5.6 assists while averaging more than 38 minutes per game in his final collegiate season. He was team captain at Fresno State and received his bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies in 2004.

Formerly from Goleta, Calif., and Dos Pueblos High School, Legans averaged 4.4 assists, 10.4 points and 1.4 steals per game during his 124-game collegiate career, making 83.9 percent of his free throws, 40.2 percent of his field goals and 36.6 percent of his three-point shots. His high school team advanced to the CIF Playoffs each of his four seasons on the squad.

While at Dos Pueblos High School, he was named league MVP and Player of the Year for Santa Barbara County. He also earned All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) honors, and was rated as the seventh-best point guard in the country by Recruiting USA and the No. 19 point guard by PrepStar.

Legans was born July 30, 1981, in Ventura, Calif. His mother’s name is Susan Legans and he has two brothers, Dominic and Calisto Plurde, and one sister, Lisa Legans.