W&J hires new coach for basketball program

Washington & Jefferson College will put the power of youthful enthusiasm to the test next basketball season.
The school announced Friday morning that 31-year-old Ethan Stewart-Smith, who was an assistant this winter at Carnegie Mellon, has been hired as the new head men’s basketball coach of the Presidents.
Stewart-Smith replaces Glenn Gutierrez, who resigned earlier this month after nine seasons and a 104-140 career record.
Stewart-Smith, who is only the 15th head coach in Presidents history, is a 2007 graduate of Penn State-Altoona, where he was a standout point guard for the Lions under former head coach Al Seretti. Stewart-Smith began his coaching career with a one-year stint at his alma mater, then followed Seretti, a former W&J assistant coach, to Dickinson College in Carlisle. In five seasons, Stewart-Smith helped the Red Devils to two NCAA Division III tournament appearances. Dickinson advanced to the Elite Eight in 2013-14.
This season was the first at CMU for Smith-Stewart, who handled much of the defensive strategies for the Tartans, who had a 14-11 record and ranked in the top five nationally in blocked shots.
“I am attracted to the smaller, private liberal arts experience at W&J, which is similar to what I had at Dickinson,” Stewart-Smith said. “Coach Seretti was an assistant at W&J for three years and he speaks very highly of the school. I also know some alumni of W&J and they have good things to say about the place. I also like that W&J has a tradition of success in several other sports.”
The Presidents’ basketball program fell on hard times this year. W&J’s best player, forward Nate Bellhy, suffered a groin injury in preseason practice and the former first team All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference selection did not play in a game all season. Without him, the Presidents lost their first eight games of the season, defeated Penn State-DuBois (99-67) in December and then dropped the next 14 in a row. The Presidents finished with a 2-24 record including 1-15 in the PAC and a first-round loss to Westminster in the conference tournament.
The Presidents’ three leading scorers were seniors, but the record and lack of experience among the returning players doesn’t deter Stewart-Smith.
“I like the blank canvas that comes from starting a program from scratch,” he said. “I’m not a numbers guy who says we have to win a specific numbers of games. Next season, it could be 15 or 16, or it could be five. But whatever is, that’s where our baseline is going to be and we’ll be focused on improving that.”
In addition to his ties to Seretti, W&J liked Stewart-Smith’s ability to thrive quickly while coaching in multiple conferences with different styles of play.
“Through his experiences at Carnegie Mellon and Dickinson, Ethan has worked and thrived under two coaching staffs that we have a great deal of respect for. We feel he is ready to flourish in his own program and we are excited to give him that opportunity here at W&J,” said Mark Lesako, W&J’s interim co-director of athletics.
Fitting with being a former guard, Stewart-Smith said he intends to play an up-tempo style and his recruiting will center on finding players who are good shooters.
“We want to play a fast-paced style with guys who can shoot the ball and move it. Defensively, man-to-man will be our philosophy. We want to be able to guard it,” he said.
“My style comes from Coach Seretti. At Dickinson, we tried to recruit highly skilled guys who can shoot the ball. That’s what we’ll do here.”