Hayford leaves Eastern for Seattle U. job

There's no elevator in Reese Court, nor a revolving door.

But it seemed over the first three months of 2017 each has been in place.

Since the first of the year, the Red Reese Room at Eastern Washington University's basketball arena has been the site of announcements elevating two longtime assistants to head-coaching rolls at the school.

The most recent came March 30 with Shantay Legans being named the new head-coach for Eastern men's basketball following the departure of Jim Hayford to Seattle University, March 29. He becomes Eastern's 18th head basketball coach in school history.

"Moving forward, we are pleased to appoint Shantay Legans as our next head coach. Shantay has been an integral part of our recent success and he will do a fantastic job leading us into the future," EWU athletics director Bill Chaves said.

It was just a few weeks ago on Jan. 16 that the Reese Room was abuzz with news of the surprise and sudden departure of head football coach Beau Baldwin to California-Berkeley as the Bears' offensive coordinator and days later offensive line coach Aaron Best was promoted to the job.

It was a similar out-of-the-blue situation for Hayford, who replaced Cameron Dollar with the Redhawks after he was fired earlier in March. Hayford spent six seasons at Eastern, compiling a 106-91 record, a pair of 20-win seasons and three consecutive postseason appearances for the Eagles.

"I wanted a new challenge. I love building programs and I think a great foundation has been laid here," Hayford told the Associated Press, March 30. "I now want to partner my life and my energy into bringing Seattle U. to the NCAA Tournament."

Legans has been at Eastern for eight seasons, six under Hayford and two before that under former head coach Kirk Earlywine.

"I am both honored and humbled to accept the opportunity to lead the Eastern men's basketball program," Legans said.

Prior to coming to Eastern, Legans was as an assistant coach for two seasons at Laguna Blanca High School in Santa Barbara, Calif. Previously, he was a student assistant coach for Ray Lopes at Fresno State for two seasons before embarking upon a more than three-year career playing professional basketball in Europe. Legans also has experience coaching various AAU teams in California.

Legans played collegiately at Cal-Berkeley from 1999-2002, helping lead the Golden Bears to a collective record of 61-35. He then spent his senior season (2003-04) at Fresno State, which finished with a 14-15 record overall and a 10-8 mark in the Western Athletic Conference.

He averaged 15 points and 5.6 assists in his final collegiate season. He was team captain at Fresno State and received his bachelor's degree in African American studies in 2004.

"I want to express how genuinely excited I am to continue to work with current and future Eagles," Legans said. "I am proud of where we've come from and look forward to the places we will go together."

Formerly from Goleta, Calif. on the Pacific Coast west of Santa Barbara, Legans played at Dos Pueblos High School where he was named league MVP and Player of the Year for Santa Barbara County. He was rated among the top-10 point guards in the country.

Legans was born July 30, 1981 in Ventura, Calif. He was married in 2014 to former Eastern women's basketball player Tatjana Sparavalo. Their daughter, Zola Lee, was born June 16, 2016.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].