Gee & Kimbrough Named To Men's Basketball Coaching Staff

Posted: Apr 20, 2006

April 20, 2006

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jayson Gee and Jermaine Kimbrough, who served last year on the coaching staffs at St. Bonaventure and IPFW, respectively, have been named to the men's basketball coaching staff at Cleveland State. CSU head coach Gary Waters made the announcement on Thursday (April 20).

Gee will serve as associate coach while Kimbrough takes over as assistant coach.

"I welcome both Jayson and Jermaine to Cleveland and look forward to working with them to build the foundation of the Viking basketball program," Waters said. "They are both quality people with good coaching experience that will help to solidify our efforts recruiting within the State of Ohio."

Gee, 40, joins the staff after coaching at St. Bonaventure for the last three years. He served as an assistant coach in 2002-03 before being promoted to associate head coach in 2003-04.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Gee played for four years at the University of Charleston, graduating in 1988 with a degree in social science education. A team captain in two of his seasons at Charleston, he ended his career ranked third in school history in both rebounding (844) and games played (122). He was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame in 2002.

Gee earned his first collegiate coaching position in 1989-90 when he was hired as assistant coach at Youngstown State. He served at YSU for four seasons until serving as associate head coach at Ohio University from 1993-96. While in Athens, Ohio, he began his coursework towards earning a master's degree in sports science and administration, receiving it in 2003.

In 1996-97, Gee took over as head coach at Charleston, guiding the Golden Eagles to a 160-55 record (.744) in seven seasons, posting six consecutive 20-win seasons and making four NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. He left Charleston for St. Bonaventure in 2003.

"Jayson has qualities that are paramount to our success as a new program," Waters said. "He is a tireless worker with high moral standards and he has experience at all levels of collegiate basketball. As a head coach, you dream of having a person on your staff who represents the things that Jayson does. His experience will help us reach the goals that we have targeted."

Kimbrough, 27, is a 2001 graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in psychology. He served as assistant coach at Howard College for two seasons (2001-03) before coming to Cleveland State as administrative assistant for the 2003-04 campaign. He left CSU the following season to become assistant coach at UMass and most recently served as an assistant coach at IPFW for one season (2005-06).

A native of northeast Ohio, Kimbrough was a second team all-state selection in basketball as a senior at Shaker Heights High School and went on to earn honorable mention All-America honors as a sophomore at St. Catharine College in Bardstown, Ky. He played his final two seasons at Virginia Tech, seeing action in 45 games at guard.

"In my estimation, Jermaine is one of the up-and-coming young talents in the coaching profession," Waters said. "He brings to our program high energy, knowledge in teaching the point guard position and awareness of areas that far exceed an on the floor coach.

"My goal is to heavily recruit the greater Cleveland area and Jermaine's experience and knowledge gained from his previous coaching in northeast Ohio and his relationships in this area will make him an integral part of this process."