Head men's basketball coach Paul Hewitt has announced the first addition to his coaching staff, as Chris Kreider officially joined the Patriot staff on Wednesday as an assistant coach.

“Chris is going to be a star,” Hewitt said of Kreider at his introductory press conference. “He is a hard worker, he understands basketball. One of the things I want to do is really expand our recruiting as much as we can, and Chris is bilingual in Spanish and English.”

Kreider joins the Patriots following two seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia Southern. Prior to his time in Statesboro, he spent two years as a volunteer assistant and administrative assistant under Coach Hewitt at Georgia Tech.

From Hummelstown, Pa., Kreider entered the college coaching ranks at the University of Great Falls in Montana where he served one year as an assistant coach from 2002-2003. He then coached high school basketball at St. Francis in Alpharetta, Ga., for three years.  Serving first as junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant coach, Kreider lead the girls varsity team in his second year and in 2005-2006 was named the head coach of the Knights varsity boys program.

Kreider spent the 2006-2007 campaign as a volunteer assistant at USC Aiken under his former assistant coach Vince Alexander before joining the Yellow Jackets in June 2007.

A starter at small forward for three colleges, Kreider played for one year at Mansfield University before transferring to Grove City College (Pa.). In his junior season, Kreider led the Wolverines in scoring (12.3 ppg) and steals (52). Kreider finished his playing and academic career at Lebanon Valley College under Coach Brad McAlester in 2002, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish in 2003.

Kreider is married to the former Heather Akers of Atlanta.