In a surprise move, Cleveland State Men’s basketball will be adding Steve Wright to the staff. Wright will be taking on the role of video coordinator. Back on August 8, 2019, when head coach Dennis Gates announced his staff per team release, he named Sean Sims the video coordinator. In that release, Sims said, “I want to thank Coach Gates for providing me the opportunity to be the video coordinator on his staff an I’m excited to be working with his staff creating a champion culture at Cleveland State”. Now the question is what happened to Sims?
While we probably never get an answer to it, we can look at what Wright brings to the staff. Wright spent the last two seasons as the head coach of Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. In those two seasons, he led them to a record of 39-13. Princeton High School plays in the Greater Miami Conference, where Wright was named Greater Miami Conference Coach of the Year in 2018.
Wright also spent time coaching at other levels of the game from high school to NAIA, AAU, and even junior college. Wright played collegiately at Bowling Green for three years before transferring to Northern Kentucky University. For Bowling Green, Wright appeared in 78 games and started in 64 them averaging 9.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game. While at Northern Kentucky, he averaged 16.8 points per game there.
Wright also played professionally over in Europe for five years. Four them in Germany, where he played for Duesseldorf, Walter Tigers, Webmoebel and NY Phantoms. Wright started in some games, was named team captain for some teams and participated in Bundesliga All-Star weekend as a participant in the dunk contest in the 2010-2011 season. His last year, Wright played in Finland and served as team captain for the team known as Namika Lahti.
At some of his time over in Europe, Wright assisted local schools by hosting basketball clinics and helping kids by teaching them basketball techniques. That will sure come in handy now as he will be helping the Vikings reach new heights in the Horizon League.
