Hartwick College Men's Basketball

Cooper will enter his second season leading the program in the 2025-2026 season. In the 2024-2025 season, Cooper would successfully coach Mike Gitz, who became the leading scorer for the Hawks as well as Empire 8 Sportsman of the Year representative. Gitz would also be named to the College Sports Communicators Men's Basketball At-Large Academic All-District Team. Cooper comes to Hartwick after serving as an assistant coach at Hamilton College.  Prior to his time at Hamilton, Cooper served as the head coach at Keystone College in LaPlume, Pa.  At the time of Cooper’s appointment at Keystone, he was the youngest head coach at any NCAA level.   During his tenure at Keystone, the SUNY Fredonia graduate coached 13 Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) all-conference players, including the 2023 CSAC Player of the Year.  Under his guidance, four of Cooper’s players were D3hoops.com All-Region Selections.  In addition, he coached back-to-back D3hoops.com Region 5 Rookies of the Year in 2022 and 2023.   In his final two seasons at Keystone, Cooper led the Giants to the conference semifinals and the championship game while upsetting a pair of higher-seeded teams in the process while mentoring 2022-23 CSAC Player of the Year Jack Anderson. He has also been extremely active on the AAU Circuit, coaching the NEPA Elite team to a pair of national championship appearances at the U16 level.   As a player at Fredonia, Cooper was named All-SUNYAC twice.  He currently sits in the second spot in career steals and first in career 3-pointers made.  

Benson will enter his second year as assistant coach for the 2025-26 season. Benson comes to Hartwick from Keuka College after serving as a Graduate Assistant Coach while pursuing his Master of Science in Management.  His duties with the Wolves consisted of scouting report development, recruiting new athletes to the program, coordinating and running workouts outside of practice hours and managing social media accounts. Prior to receiving his graduate degree, Benson earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing at SUNY Geneseo.  He played for the Knights for two seasons, earning National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court recognition for his academic and athletic efforts in 2021-2022. “Hartwick has a long history of success within their basketball program and I can't wait to assist Coach Cooper in taking it to the next level. He brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm and I'm super excited to help him set the culture here. I'm confident that my passion for the game and ability to establish relationships will serve as a positive influence on these student-athlete's lives.”

Chick is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and teaches courses mostly in political theory/philosophy and a few others in public law. In addition to being the basketball team's advisor, he is also Hartwick's Pre-Law Advisor, the Director of the Legal Studies Minor, and a Co-Director of the Institute of Public Service.