| |
Tony Ciccone, Assistant Coach
The 2007-08 campaign will mark Tony Ciccone’s fourth season as assistant women’s basketball coach at Emory University. Among Ciccone’s responsibilities are recruiting, scouting, practice and game preparation, as well as on-court coaching with a focus on post play. Ciccone also serves as a facility supervisor and event manager.
During his tenure, Ciccone has played a major role in the recruitment of high-level student-athletes to the women’s basketball team. The impact on the Eagles program was immediate. After nine players joined the team during the 2005-06 season, the team achieved a 15-10 record, the school’s best in seven years. The eight-game improvement over the previous year was also the largest turnaround in school history.
Included in the class were juniors Erica Kaplan (Commack, NY) and Lora Turner (Florence, Ala.). Turner earned second-team All-UAA honors during her sophomore year while leading the team in scoring and rebounding. Turner was also a UAA newcomer of the year nominee during her freshman year and earned All-UAA honorable mention honors. Kaplan ranked among the top three-point shooters in the country during her freshman year, and earned All-UAA honorable mention honors as a sophomore.
"I am excited and fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a coach like Tony Ciccone," says Christy Thomaskutty, who is entering her fifth year at the helm of the program in 2007-08. "He is a great asset to Emory University, our athletic community and to our basketball program. Most importantly, our players have benefited from his knowledge, experience, and tireless work ethic."
Prior to Emory, Ciccone previously was the assistant women's basketball coach at Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.). His responsibilities included recruiting, scouting, practice preparation and game management.
While at Stevens, Ciccone helped the Ducks secure an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) post-season tournament bid during the 2003-04 season. He also played a major role in recruiting one of the most successful classes in school history.
Included in the class was standout Dora Enright (Longmount, Col.), a first-team All-Skyline Conference honoree. During her junior season at Stevens, Enright led the Skyline Conference in scoring and rebounding and was named to the All-Metropolitan Division III first-team by the National Invitation Tournament and Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association.
Enright, who eclipsed the 1,000-point scoring mark during her junior season, garnered D3hoops.com All-Atlantic Region second-team honors and was a CoSIDA academic all-district second-team selection. Ciccone was also instrumental in helping Stevens all-time leading scorer, Aracely Cruz play professionally in Puerto Rico.
Prior to coaching at the collegiate ranks, Ciccone coached for five seasons at the high school level. He was the head girls’ basketball coach at his alma mater, Miami Beach Senior High School (Fla.), a boys’ and girls’ junior varsity head coach at Barbara Goleman Senior High School (Fla.), a varsity assistant at Santa Fe High School (Fla.) and freshman head coach at Roseville Senior High (Minn.).
Ciccone earned his master’s of science degree in sports administration in 2007 from Georgia State University. He received his bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Florida in 1996. He played one year of college basketball and baseball at North Park University (Ill.) before completing his studies at Florida, where he was tapped as a member of Florida Blue Key Leadership Honorary.
An accomplished sports writer, Ciccone has been published in The Palm Beach Post, The Gainesville Sun, The Omaha World Herald, ACC Weekly, The Coral Gables Gazzette and The Independent Florida Alligator. In high school, Ciccone was honored with the Charles Fieldson Scholar-Athlete Award and the U.S. Marines Distinguished Athlete Award.
|
|
