Elon University men's basketball associate head coach Tim Sweeney will be roaming a new sideline next season.
Sweeney, who has spent the last five years assisting head coach Matt Matheny, will be leaving the Phoenix next season to head north to Hobart College, where he will be head coach. Hobart is a Division III school in Geneva, N.Y.
"I am incredibly excited to be joining the Hobart and William Smith community," Sweeney said in statement released by the Hobart Athletics Department. "It's a place that competes for championships but just as importantly is committed to providing the best experience possible to its student-athletes. Hobart basketball has achieved great success, in many areas, and I look forward to leading our program in its next chapter!"
It is a homecoming of sorts for Sweeney, as Hobart is less than 50 miles southeast of the University of Rochester, where he played basketball and got his first assistant coaching job.
"My time at Elon has been nothing short of extraordinary," Sweeney said in a press release from Elon Athletics. "The program is in an exciting and great place moving forward into the Colonial Athletic Association with a great group of young men who are committed to being the best they can be. I have been fortunate to work with such great people during my stay here."
Before coming to Elon in 2009, Sweeney spent a year at Bucknell University and was an assistant coach at Davidson College alongside Matheny.
"Tim Sweeney is ready for the next step in his career and we are thrilled Hobart feels the same way," Matheny said in a statement released by Elon Athletics. "Tim has played a key role in the growth of our program over the last five years. He is extremely hard working and detail oriented in addition to being an intelligent basketball coach. Tim is ready to run his own program and we wish him the very best."
Sweeney will replace his former coach Mike Neer, who retired this year after three seasons with the Hobart Statesmen and 37 total years coaching college basketball. Neer coached Sweeney at Rochester and gave him his start in coaching following his graduation in 2003.
Hobart has been one of the nation's top Division III programs in recent years with four straight 20-win seasons, four consecutive Liberty League regular season championships, back-to-back Liberty League Tournament Titles and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
Last season the Statesmen went 22-7 and made it to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.