Coach Andrew Vasher

Andrew Vasher is entering his seventh season at Hartnell College. In his first six years seasons the Hartnell Panthers have reached high standards of excellence on and off the court. Coach Vasher is known as a program builder and culture changer. In his second season at Hartnell they had the largest turn around in school history, a Coast Conference Championship, a Regional Runner-up and a top ranking of 6th in the state that year. Since this turn around in the second year the Panthers have been ranked in the state polls every year, in the top ten in scoring and play one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

Coach Vasher has brought a wealth of experience to Hartnell, having coached as an assistant coach at the NCAA D-1 and D-2 levels, a Junior College Head Coach at Columbia College and a Head High school coach in Arizona. Over his 18 years as a Head Coach he has 361 wins, averaging 20 wins a year. He has coached and recruited 12 Junior College All-Americans, and has 9 of his former student/athletes playing professionally. He also has 13 of his former student/athletes that have gone on to earn graduate degrees.

Coach Vasher believes that a total championship program requires more than just championship level success on the court, but also in the classroom and in the community. Since Coach Vasher arrived in 2005-06 at Hartnell the Men’s Basketball program has had over 100 of the Men’s Basketball student/athletes make the President’s or Dean’s list for academics. In 2009-10 the Men’s Basketball program had one of its student/athletes as Valedictorian of Hartnell College. During this same time period Hartnell Men’s Basketball student/athletes have a 100% transfer rate to four year schools and a team GPA of 3.55. Unmatched by any other program in California.

The Panthers have also excelled in the community engagement arena; over the last six years the Men’s Basketball program has put in over 4,200 man hours of service in the Salinas community.

Coach Vasher and his family live in Salinas. His wife Julie is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at SVMH. They have six children and four grandchildren. Their daughter Allison is married and lives in Utah, The son Nathan is married and is in graduate school at the University of Denver (former assistant coach at Hartnell for one season), Joe is a student at Brigham Young University, and Kyle is currently serving an LDS mission in the Tampa Florida Mission. Both Joe and Kyle played at Hartnell this past season. Matt 12 and Grace 9 still live at home.