Gholson to Lead 'Berg Basketball

Ohio Athletic Conference veteran Anthony T. Gholson has been selected the new head men’s basketball coach at Heidelberg College.

Gholson, an assistant at Ohio Northern the past four years, replaces Duane Sheldon, who left Heidelberg for the head coaching position at Baldwin-Wallace College, his alma mater, after six successful campaigns at Heidelberg.

Heidelberg Athletic Director Matt Palm said Gholson’s experience as a player and a coach as well as a teacher and administrator made him the ideal candidate to take over a program that has been surging upward the past few seasons. “We feel he is the right person to continue the momentum this program has built over the last few years,” Palm said.

At Heidelberg, Gholson inherits a program that is coming off one of its best seasons ever. The Student Princes won the OAC tournament on the heels of a 23-win season, the second most in the program’s history. The 20-5 regular season record tied for the best all-time mark. A trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament ended in the first round for the Student Princes.

Gholson is accustomed to success. During his tenure as head coach at Columbus State Community College (2000-04), he led the Cougars to an 86-36 record (.704 winning percentage). In his last season at Columbus State, his team was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II with a 29-2 record. That same year, they won the Ohio Community Athletic Conference Championship.

During his playing days at Ohio Northern, Gholson, a two-year letter winner, was a member of the National Tournament team in 1988. He was a member of the coaching staff when the Polar Bears won the national championship in 1993.

Palm said Gholson’s familiarity with the OAC, combined with his recruiting and coaching success, fit well with Heidelberg’s goals. Gholson agreed, and added that he looks forward to joining a campus community in which athletics and academics blend harmoniously. “I am excited for the opportunity to lead a program that is on the upswing, and plays a large role on campus,” he said. “As a whole, athletics at Heidelberg is a mainstay in the campus culture, and I look forward to becoming a part of it.”

Posted on July 1, 2008