Tony Hanson is in his first season with the Winthrop men’s basketball program as an assistant coach.
Hanson joins the Winthrop staff after serving as the coordinator of basketball operations at the University of Missouri this past season. The 2005 graduate of the University of North Carolina spent the 2010-11 season as an assistant coach in Japan for the Oita Heat Devils, a team in the top professional league in Japan.
A native of Wilmington, N.C., Hanson has great familiarity with the college basketball world. He spent two seasons playing junior varsity basketball at North Carolina and spent five seasons as the video coordinator at Wake Forest University. While at Wake Forest, Hanson was responsible for coordinating film exchange and editing film for practice preparation. He also updated Wake's recruiting database and assisted in the daily operations of the program.
Hanson's responsibilities at Missouri, beyond the daily operations of the program, included organizing team travel, assisting in on-campus recruiting, assisting with video preparation on opponents and director of Missouri's summer basketball camps.
"I have known
Tony Hanson for eight years and worked closely with him for four,” said Kelsey, who took over the Winthrop program March 29 as the sixth head coach in school history. “He is a natural born recruiter. Several years ago, I affectionately nicknamed him 'the prodigy' for his remarkable ability to know about every kid everywhere. Tony has a special ability to relate with players. Our conference just added an elite recruiter.
"I am so excited to have Tony join Woo Nation. He is a high character person that cares deeply about the development of our players on and off the court."
Hanson earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management and Society with a minor in Exercise and Sports Science from UNC. He also earned his Masters in Liberal Studies from Wake Forest in 2009. He got his coaching start at Apex High School in Apex, NC in 2004-05, helping lead the program to a 27-3 overall mark.
