Alma athletics photo

Less than 13 months after Alma College named Ryan Clark as its head women's basketball coach, the College picked him to fill its men's head coaching vacancy. He replaces Sam Hargraves who moved to Olivet.

• Other MIAA moves: Calvin WBB | Olivet WBB | Olivet MBB
• More moves in Coaching Carousel

Alma Director of Athletics Steven Rackley announced the hire on Monday via release.

"I'm very happy to have Ryan lead our men's basketball program," said Rackley. "Ryan has proven to be quite a capable coach over the course of this tenure here. His players respect him, his peers admire him, and he is held in high regard in the department. I am confident his success will continue in this new role and we're fortunate it's happening here at Alma."

Clark six seasons as an assistant on the Alma men's team under Hargraves and was part of the coaching staff that led the Scots to the 2016 NCAA Tournament sectional finals and a 24-7 record. When Kris Johnson stepped down as the head coach of the Scots' women's basketball team in March 2018, the College quickly promoted Clark into that position. 

He led the Scots women's team to a 15-12 finish including nine wins in the MIAA and a victory over Calvin in the conference tournament. It was the best finish for Alma women's basketball since 2002-03. 

Now Clark will try to engineer a similar turnaround for the Scots men's program. Alma has seen its win total drop each year since its 2015-16 season and finished 5-22, 4-10 in the MIAA last season.

Someone else will be charged with building on the success that the Alma women's team had last season. The Scots should return all but one starter.