Shenandoah Valley News

Castleberry ’07 Named Head Coach at Fairleigh Dickinson

Former VMI basketball cadet-athlete and assistant coach Jack Castleberry '07 was named the next head basketball coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University Wednesday morning in Teaneck, New Jersey.
 
The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native played at VMI from 2003-07 and was a three-year letterman and two-year starter for the Keydets, including a nod as the team captain as a senior in 2006-07 when he helped the team to a 14-win season, the most in a decade.
 
Castleberry led the Keydets to their first conference tournament final in 20 years. During that same year, the Keydets led the nation in scoring offense (100.9 ppg), three-point field goals made (13.4 per game), assists (20.6) and steals per game (14.8), including setting NCAA records for three-point field goals made in a season (442), three-point field goals attempted (1383), three-point field goals made per game (13.4), steals in a season (490) and steals per game (14.8).
 
For his efforts on the playing court, Castleberry was bestowed with the "Spirit of VMI Award" by the coaching staff for his leadership, toughness and hustle. He graduated from the Institute in May 2007 with a degree in Economics and Business.
 
After one season as an assistant coach at UT-Martin (2007-08), he joined the VMI coaching staff under his former head coach, Duggar Baucom, as an assistant through the 2014-15 season when the staff departed for new coaching positions at The Citadel.
 
He served under Baucom at The Citadel from 2015 through the 2021-22 season, upon which he took an assistant coaching position at Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
Former FDU head coach Tobin Anderson took the recently Rick Pitino-vacated head coaching job at Iona College Tuesday, and FDU moved quickly to promote Castleberry as its next head coach within 24 hours of Anderson's departure.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson, which defeated VMI by a narrow 93-89 score this past November at the Longwood Tournament in Farmville, Virginia, entered the national conversation this past week after defeating No. 1 seed Purdue as a No. 16 seed in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, only the second time in NCAA history that a No. 16 defeated a No. 1.

Castleberry is now a member of a small and unique group of VMI graduates who are or were men's college head basketball coaches:
 
1. Bobby Watson '64 - Evansville (tragically died in plane crash with team)
2. Bill Blair '64 - VMI, Colorado, Minnesota Timberwolves
3. Charlie Schmaus '66 - VMI 
4. Webb Hatch '69 - Marymount (VA) and Frostburg State
5. Lewis Preston '93 - Kennesaw State
6. Preston Beverly '06 - Evangel University - Women's Head Coach
7. Jack Castleberry '07 - Fairleigh Dickinson 

Original source can be found here