St. Joseph hires Plum’s Hart Coleman as new boys basketball coach

By: Doug Gulasy
Sunday, May 12, 2019 | 11:08 AM

Hart Coleman first became familiar with St. Joseph’s boys basketball program when he brought his Plum team to the Spartans’ summer league in 2018.

He liked what he saw enough that when the coaching position opened up, he went after it.

St. Joseph hired Coleman last week as its boys basketball coach to replace Kelly Robinson, who retired last month after 21 seasons.

“I’m really excited about the transition,” said Coleman, who coached Plum for two seasons. “I know that (Robinson) was there for an extended period of time and ultimately has retired, so it’s just an opportunity to do something different, try to build my own legacy there, and see if we can continue the winning process that they had last year.”

Coleman, a 1984 Brashear graduate, played at Carnegie Mellon. He led Plum to an 11-33 record the past two seasons.

At St. Joseph, Coleman takes over a program that won the outright Section 3-A title last season and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals. The Spartans will graduate three starters, but sophomore standout guard Andrew Sullivan will be among the returning players. Robinson led St. Joseph to 283 victories and 17 playoff appearances in his 21 seasons.

It won’t be the first time Coleman replaces a longtime coach, as he took over at Plum for Ron Richards, who led the Mustangs for 17 seasons before stepping down in 2017.

Coleman said he plans to meet with his new players this week, with the St. Joseph summer league about to begin. That league will give him an opportunity to begin learning what his players can do on the floor.

“There’s no goals in place at this time,” he said. “It’s just to kind of first and foremost get acclimated to everybody and just understand the young men that are there, understand the administration, the student body as well as the parents, hit the ground running and build from there.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review Staff Writer. You can contact Doug at 412-388-5830, dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Plum, St. Joseph