University of Dayton Men's Basketball

Andre Watson joined the UD men's basketball program as a Graduate Assistant in the summer of 2023.  He came to Dayton from DePaul, where he was a senior manager with the men's basketball team while earning his degree in Sports Communications. A native of Muskegon, Michigan, Watson was a four-year varsity student-athlete for Muskegon Catholic Central. He was on two district championship teams and was named All-Conference, and All-Region.   He was also named Honorable Mention All-Michigan as a senior. Watson began his college career as a player at Muskegon Community College, where his team went 26-4 and won the MCCAA Western and State Championships as well was winning the Region 12 Championship and earning a national tournament berth in 2019-20. While in Chicago Watson worked with the Chicago Sky of the WNBA.  He spent the 2022 season as a Basketball Operations Intern as well as a practice player.

Sean Damaska was elevated to the role of Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator in the summer of 2023. A member of the Dayton men's basketball staff since 2018, Damaska came to UD as a graduate assistant.  He then was named UD's video coordinator for men's basketball in the spring of 2021.  In fact, he was the University of Dayton's first video coordinator in men's basketball.  Damaska continued his climb as Director of Basketball Operations for the Flyers in the summer of 2022. Damaska grew up in Milton, Georgia and played four seasons of football at Indiana University.  He appeared in all 13 games in the 2015 season as a tight end and on special teams.   He graduated from IU in 2015 with a degree in political science with a minor in business.   He then joined the basketball squad at Northern Illinois University. While at NIU, Damaska saw action in seven contests, averaging 1.4 points and 1.1 rebounds per game. After his final season at Northern Illinois he became a Player Development Intern with the Dallas Mavericks for one year before joining the Dayton basketball staff. Damaska completed the requirements for a master’s in Sports Management in 2020 and also earned his MBA in 2021.  

After playing one season for the Flyers as a walk-on grad transfer, CJ  Napier transitioned to the role of a graduate assistant for the 2024-25 season. Napier played in five games and scored five points for UD in 2023-24, and was a member of the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll.  He came to UD after a standout career at Ohio Northern. Where he averaged 17.1 points a game and scored 1,279 points in his career.  He was four-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference, three-time Academic All-OAC and a two-time team captain at ONU. Originally from Miamisburg, Ohio near Dayton, he was conference player of the year and Second Team All-Ohio as a senior for Bishop Fenwick High School. Napier graduated Summa Cum Laude in Finance from Ohio Northern and is pursuing his MBA at UD.

Nik Stadelman joins the Flyers for his first year on the Dayton Men's Basketball staff as a graduate assistant in 2025.  A native of Rockford, Illinois, Stadelman played in 24 games during his four-year basketball career at Illinois State. He graduated cum laude in May 2024 from Illinois State University, before beginning his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Radford University.

Honore´ Niyongira enters his first year on the Dayton Men's Basketball staff as a graduate assistant in 2025.  A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Niyongira played collegiately at both Colby Community College and Acadia University, where he was named an Academic All-Canadian. Following his collegiate career, he went on to play professionally for APR Basketball Club in the Rwanda Basketball League and for USAB in France’s National Masculin 2 League. After his playing career, he joined the Basketball Africa League (BAL), where he spent the last two seasons working in the operations department.

Jermaine Henderson, a veteran college coach with more than 25 years of experience joined the Flyer coaching staff in April of 2023.   Henderson's addition takes advantage of a recently-adopted NCAA rule change that allows for additional coaches on a school's men's basketball staff. A 1997 grad of Miami University, Henderson's coaching career includes stops at Miami, Missouri State, Cleveland State (twice) and Kansas State.  He played on four post-season teams for the then-Redskins, including in 1995 at UD Arena when Miami knocked off Arizona and then fell in overtime to Virginia. After playing for Herb Sendek and Charlie Coles, Henderson joined Coles' staff at Miami for 15 seasons.  Henderson coached three seasons (2012-15) as an assistant to Paul Lusk at Missouri State.  He then went to Cleveland State where he was as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons under Gary Waters.    In 2017-18, Henderson went to Kansas State.  At K-State, Henderson spent two seasons as the program's director of student-athlete development on Bruce Weber's staff before returning to the court as an assistant coach for the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. He then returned to Cleveland State as an assistant coach on Daniyal Robinson's staff.  The Vikings were 21-14 in Robinson's first season as a head coach in 2022-23. Henderson has been a part of nine post-season teams and seven conference championships during his coaching career.  

Patrick Edwards returned to the University of Dayton men’s basketball program in August of 2024.  Edwards was named the team’s Director of Basketball Operations. A four-year student manager for the Flyers from 2018 to 2022, Edwards served as the head manager as a senior.  Just before he graduated from UD, he was the Director of Basketball Operations for the Intersport 3x3U Championship held during the Final Four in New Orleans. Edwards spent the last two years at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.  He was a men’s basketball graduate assistant in 2022-23, and then the Gamecocks’ Coordinator of Basketball Operations in 2023-24. The Pittsburgh native graduated from UD in 2022, majoring in Accounting and minoring in Entrepreneurship.  He earned his MBA from Jax State in May.

Began at Dayton: August, 2019 Job Responsibilities: Designs and implements strength, conditioning, flexibility, and nutrition plans for the men’s basketball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis teams. Past Experience: University of Miami, University of Dayton, Louisiana Tech University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Florida International University, National Strength and Conditioning Association Headquarters Education: B.S. Clinical Health Studies Ithaca College, M.S.Ed Exercise Physiology with a concentration in Strength and Conditioning – University of Miami 2014 Certifications:  Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S.), Level 2 Fascial Stretch Therapy Certified (FST), Total Body Fascial Distortion Model Certified (FDM), Corrective Exercise Specialist (C.E.S.), Personal: Currently lives in Centerville with his wife Grace and daughters Lily and Alexandra.