MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — St. Mary’s Ryken (Md.) boys basketball coach Dave Tallman was officially approved on Tuesday night by the Monongalia County Board of Education to take over as Morgantown’s new boys basketball coach.
Tallman has been at the helm with St. Mary’s Ryken since 2007 and is the son of current Magnolia boys basketball coach Dave Tallman, Sr.
“He’s so excited and we’ll be tickled to death to get him back to West Virginia,” Tallman, Sr. said. “Not just because he’s my son, but I think he’s a fantastic coach.”
Tallman, who serves as the athletic director with St. Mary’s as well, takes over for longtime Morgantown coach Tom Yester who stepped down after this past season. Yester, in all, spent 42 years as a head coach, 32 of them with the Mohigans.
“Tom (Yester) was a great coach and maybe Dave can build off of what he did and ultimately win a state championship or two,” Tallman, Sr. said.
More: University goes with Schmidle as new boys basketball coach
St. Mary’s Ryken this past season tied a school record 18-wins, matching the total from the 2010-2011 season. Since 2008, 19 of 25 graduates from Tallman’s program have gone on to play basketball at the collegiate level, including Treveon Graham who averaged 15.8 points per game this past season at VCU.
Former Mountaineer John Flowers is a 2007 graduate from St. Mary’s Ryken as well. As a player, Tallman won a Class AA state basketball championship under his father at Magnolia back in 2000. He went on to graduate from Wheeling Jesuit in 2004 as his collegiate basketball career was cut short by injury. Tallman served as an assistant at St. Mary’s Ryken before taking over the program in 2007.
Morgantown, meanwhile, is coming off of a 15-11 campaign that included another berth in the state tournament where the Mohigans fell to top seed Washington.