Former Green Bay women’s basketball associate head coach John Barnes has been hired as the head coach at Youngstown State. Barnes becomes the seventh head coach of a Penguins’ program that finished second in the Horizon League last season before advancing to the second round of the 2013 WNIT Tournament.
Barnes, a four-year basketball player and 1995 graduate of Michigan Tech University started his coaching career at his alma mater in 2003 as the head coach of the women’s basketball team. From 2003-10, he led the Huskies to a 156-55 record with five appearances in the NCAA Division II Championships. He was named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times and his program never had a losing season.
He served as an assistant at Wisconsin during the 2010-11 season before assuming the same position at Michigan under Kevin Borseth for the 2011-12 campaign.
Barnes replaces Horizon League Coach of the Year Bob Boldon who accepted the same position at the University of Ohio in March.