By Patrick Hayes

New Saginaw Valley State coach Randy Baruth recently made an addition to his coaching staff. The school announced that Matt Hammer has joined the staff. Interestingly, he will be an assistant on the women’s team too:

Hammer, a former standout player at Northern State University under coaching legend Don Meyer, will assist with both Cardinal basketball programs this year.  He has been an assistant coach the past two seasons at Aberdeen Central High School in South Dakota after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant on the bench with Meyer at Northern State.

“We are extremely excited to add Matt Hammer to both basketball programs here at SVSU,” stated women’s basketball coach Jamie Pewinski.  “He has learned to teach the game of basketball from one of the best coaches, in Don Meyer, and he has great knowledge of the administrative side of the coaching profession.”  Head men’s basketball coach Randy Baruth reiterated, “We look forward to getting him in the mix quickly as both programs continue to grow and be more successful in all aspects.”

Prior to entering the coaching field, Hammer, played professionally for FSU in Selfoss, Iceland for one season after completing his outstanding career at Northern State.  While at NSU, he was named to the 2005 Daktronics DII North Central Region First Team.  He also became just the second member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference to be named to Player of the Year and NSIC Tournament MVP in the same season.  He left Northern State ranked 13^th on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,686 points.

Hammer prepped at Elkton High School in South Dakota where he was named Mr. Basketball in 2002.

Not sure how common that is to share assistant positions at the college level, but it does seem like a great way to pool resources, especially at non-high major revenue generating schools.