Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Kicking Off the Season with Coaching Staff Changes

by Amanda Zumpano

Director of William Smith Athletics Deb Steward and Interim Director of Hobart Athletics Brian Miller recently announced the hiring of five coaches.

Stefan Thompson '13 takes over as head coach of the Statesmen basketball team after performing assistant coach duties at Wilkes University and Hobart. Over the past two seasons, he helped his alma mater to an overall record of 38-16 while capturing the 2017-18 Liberty League regular season championship. The first Hobart player to earn All-America honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Thompson led the Statesmen to an 82-31 record over four seasons.

Tim Riskie now leads the William Smith tennis team while continuing his role as the Hobart head tennis coach. He has led the Statesmen to an overall record of 95-67 in his first eight seasons. Riskie has mentored two ITA All-Americans, 44 All-Liberty League selections, and two Liberty League Rookies of the Year. He and his assistants were named the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year in 2017.

Riskie will coach a William Smith team that was 14-7 overall and 6-2 in the Liberty League last season. The Herons earned the third-seed in the Liberty League tournament and advanced to the semifinals.

Pat Cosquer takes over both Hobart and William Smith squash teams after 11 years as the head coach of the men's and women's squash teams at Bates College. He mentored eight All- Americans, a two-time College Squash Association Individual Champion, five NESCAC Players of the Year and 51 All-NESCAC performers. He was named the NESCAC men's coach of the year in 2010 and 2016, and the women's coach of the year in 2010.

Cosquer inherits a William Smith team that went 10-10 and finished second in the Liberty League last year, and a Statesmen team that finished 8-13 overall and third at the Liberty League Championships.

R.C. Weston leads the William Smith swimming and diving team after spending the last five years as the head swimming coach at Alfred State College, where he guided both teams to best-ever second place finishes at the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and mentored six AMCC Divers of the Year. Prior to Alfred State, Weston was an assistant coach at Binghamton University and the head coach and aquatics director at Milligan College in Tennessee.

Weston inherits a Heron team that finished sixth at the Liberty League Championships last season and went 6-1 in dual meets. Weston succeeds Kelly Kisner, who served as head coach for 30 seasons. Compiling a record of 206-95-1 in dual meets, Kisner holds the program record for dual meet victories (206), more than her five predecessors combined.

"I'm excited about the impact that all of our outstanding new coaches will have on our Heron student-athletes, teams and department," says Steward. "They understand at the core of their passion for teaching collegiate student-athletes that they are teaching life lessons through sport."

Cait Finn made history this fall when she became the first woman to coach football at Hobart College, joining the staff as a defensive assistant coach. She was the first woman to play football for Warwick Schools in Warwick, N.Y., playing running back and safety in seventh and eighth grade for the Wildcats. A certified strength and conditioning specialist who holds national-level coaching certification from USA Weightlifting, Finn completed internships at Villanova and Notre Dame and joined the strength and conditioning staff at Princeton before serving as head strength and conditioning coach, assistant athletic director for student-athlete performance and interim athletic director at Rosemont College. Finn also works full time on campus as the assistant director of the Centennial Center for Leadership where she coordinates the HWS Leads certificate program and oversees the Leadership Institute, the Center's scholars program.