Syracuse Basketball: Gerry McNamara is a member of Coaches 4 Change

Syracuse basketball assistant coach Gerry McNamara has joined the Coaches 4 Change organization that seeks to educate on issues including social injustice.

Syracuse basketball assistant coach Gerry McNamara is excelling on and off the court.

McNamara has joined together with other college basketball coaches to launch Coaches 4 Change, an organization focused on helping student-athletes, their campuses, and greater communities, according to a cuse.com announcement.

"Per the organization’s Web site, Coaches 4 Change was founded to “provide a platform that engages, educates, empowers, and evolves the young voter on yesterday’s and today’s issues of social injustice, systemic racism, and the power of voting.”"

The cuse.com statement says that Coaches 4 Change has four pillars as part of its mission, and they are engage, educate, empower and evolve. These four pillars, in return, will help guide the “endless pursuit of equality.”

According to the media release, other coaches on the Coaches 4 Change committee include Cornell’s Alex Mumphard and Brian Earl, Siena’s Antoni Wyche, Carmen Maciariello and Matt Miner, and Clemson’s Anthony Goins and Antonio Reynolds-Dean.

An Orange legend who played a key role in the ‘Cuse winning the 2003 national title, McNamara is now one of the top young coaches throughout the country. In mid-May, ESPN.com placed McNamara at No. 23 in its ratings of the top-40 coaches and assistant coaches in collegiate hoops who were under 40 years old as of April 30, 2020.

I have every confidence that, at some point in the near future, McNamara will have a head-coaching job, whether it’s at Syracuse to replace Jim Boeheim, or elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Orange athletics director John Wildhack appointed Salatha Willis to a newly created post at the university, effective immediately, where he will focus on diversity, culture and climate.

Willis, formerly the associate director of Syracuse’s Office of Student-Athlete Academic Development, is now the ‘Cuse associate athletic director of diversity, culture and climate within the Orange’s athletics department.

He is tasked with developing, and then implementing, new measures to foster a highly engaged and more inclusive culture for the university’s student-athletes, administrators, coaches and staff members in the athletics department.