Gary Waters is happy to be back coaching in northeast Ohio and he is fully prepared for the challenge of restoring the Cleveland State basketball program back to national prominence.

A 10-year head coaching veteran who has amassed 171 wins and led teams to post-season play six times during that span, has done it before, first at Kent State and most recently at Rutgers.

Named the 14th head coach in Cleveland State University on April 6, 2006, Waters gave a little insight into his plan for the program at his hiring press conference.

"Cleveland is a great city and has great resources," he told the media. "To get this done, we need to make a commitment to the City of Cleveland and let it be part of this program. We have to build this program around players from this area so that we can give our fans something that they truly can be proud of."

Waters has wasted no time in implementing his plan, using his first six months on the job to do exactly what he told the press. He has:

* brought in a four-player recruiting class that will immediately help to supplement the nine returning Vikings;
* added transfers Cedric Jackson (St. John's), Chris Moore (UC-Santa Barbara) and George Tandy (Eastern Illinois), each of whom will be eligible in 2007-08;
* backed up his commitment to build the program with people from the Cleveland area, signing Warrensville's Joe Davis, Lakewood's Chris Moore and Lincoln-West High graduate George Tandy and adding Jermaine Kimbrough (Shaker Heights High) and Bill Buck (CSU) to his coaching staff;
* filled his coaching staff with 41 years of experience by hiring Jayson Gee, Larry DeSimpelare and Jermaine Kimbrough as assistant coaches; and
* proudly displayed the CSU campus to countless high school and AAU basketball coaches and players.

Waters is quick to point out the three characteristics that a successful program must have to find success. . . a vision, a plan and quality people. Every decision that he has made has kept those three points in mind as he began the process of building the Viking program.

"Part of the foundation is already in place here at Cleveland State," Waters said. "We have quality people -- both in the program and supporting the program -- already here and ready to take this team to the next level."

Using the insight of legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden, Waters personally teaches a class in success to the CSU players, using Wooden's Pyramid of Success as the textbook for the class. Waters uses the course to instill upon the Viking players what is necessary to become a winner, both on the court and in life. He challenged them to build their own pyramid, identifiying the traits and qualities that will be needed to bring the CSU program to national prominence.

The response of the Vikings has astonished the veteran coach. "These kids want to win and are willing to do what is necessary. We held all of our practices during the preseason at 6:30 a.m. and not once was a player late," Waters recalled. "I wanted to move our one-mile run to the afternoon because I was worried about there being bad weather in the morning but they insisted on running at their normal practice time. That is a big step."

A Gary Waters-led basketball program places a strong emphasis on character and discipline and his family-oriented approach, combined with an up-tempo game that relies on fundamentals and relentless defensive pressure have paid huge dividends during his coaching career.

Waters, who has coached at the collegiate level for the last 32 years, first came to northeast Ohio in the spring of 1996 when he took over as head coach at Kent State University. He led the Golden Flashes to a 92-60 record in five seasons from 1996-2001, including a 70-25 mark over his final three campaigns.

Inheriting a program that had managed just one winning season in the previous seven years and had never been to the NCAA Tournament and made just three NIT appearances in its first 80 seasons, Waters went to work building a program that continues to win even five seasons after he left the campus.

Waters' impact on the Kent State program became evident in his third season (1998-99) when he guided the Golden Flashes to a school-record 23 wins (23-7), winning the Mid-American Conference tournament championship for the first time and receiving its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The Flashes went on to drop a 61-54 decision to 20th-ranked Temple in a first round game in Boston.

Kent State matched the program record for wins in 1999-2000, posting a 23-8 record that included a trip to the NIT quarterfinal round.

Waters is one of only three coaches in the history of the Mid-American Conference to earn MAC Coach of the Year honors in successive seasons, receiving the award in both 1999 and 2000.

Waters made his last season at Kent State (2000-01) a memorable one, leading the Flashes to a school-record 24 wins (24-10 overall) and the Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships. KSU provided the NCAA Tournament with one of its biggest upsets that year as the 13th-seeded Flashes upended fourth-seeded Indiana, 77-73. KSU fell to No. 2 seed Cincinnati in the second round.

Even though Waters moved to Rutgers for the 2001-02 season, his impact on the Kent State program is still evident today as the Golden Flashes have won 20 or more games in each of the five seasons since he left. Kent State has also made three more NIT and two NCAA appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight of the NCAAs in the first season after Waters left (2001-02).

The move to Rutgers led to some quick results as the Scarlet Knights went 18-13 in Waters' first season (2001-02), making only their third post-season appearance in 11 seasons when they faced Yale in the first round of the NIT.

Two years later (2003-04), Rutgers won 20 games for the first time since 1981-82, claiming wins over Temple, West Virginia, Villanova and Iowa State to advance to the championship game of the NIT.

In his final season in Piscataway (2005-06), Waters led Rutgers to 19 wins and its third NIT appearance in his five seasons, upending Penn State in the first round before falling to Saint Joseph's in the second round.

With Quincy Douby ranking sixth in the nation in scoring (25.4 ppg), the Scarlet Knights claimed four wins over NCAA-bound teams (Marquette, Seton Hall twice & Kent State) and when they knocked off No. 22 Louisville, it marked the eighth time that a Rutgers team coached by Gary Waters defeated a ranked opponent.

Douby would go on to become a first round selection (19th pick) of the Sacramento Kings in the 2006 NBA Draft.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Waters received honorable mention All-America as well as all-region and all-conference honors while playing two seasons from 1970-72 at Oakland (Mich.) Community College. He transferred to Ferris State in 1972, becoming an NAIA all-district selection and first team all-league choice as a senior in 1973-74.

In his two seasons at Ferris State, he helped the team to a 47-10 record, winning a pair of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) titles.

Waters attended the preseason camp of the NBA's Detroit Pistons in 1974 before eventually playing professionally overseas in Spain that year. He returned to Ferris State to earn his bachelor's degree business administration in 1975. He later earned a master's degree in educational administration from Central Michigan in 1976 and a second bachelor's degree in business education from Ferris State in 1978.

Waters returned to Ferris State in 1974-75 to begin his coaching career, starting a 15-year tenure as an assistant under head coaches Jim Wink (1974-78) and Tom Ludwig (1979-89).

The Bulldogs amassed a 267-144 record with Waters as an assistant coach, making four NCAA appearances, earning six GLIAC titles and winning 20 or more games six times. Waters also coached the FSC junior varsity team from 1975-78.

Waters moved across the state in the spring of 1989 to join the staff of Ben Braun at Eastern Michigan University. Waters served as the assistant head coach from 1989-93, and was associate head coach for the final three seasons. During that time, the Eagles compiled a 127-87 record and captured two Mid-American Conference titles. EMU earned two NCAA Tournament bids during his tenure, defeating Mississippi State and Penn State to advance to the Sweet 16 in 1991 and knocking off Duke in the opening round in 1996.

Kent State beckoned shortly after the Eagles were eliminated by top-seeded Connecticut in the second round, giving the 22-year assistant coach his first head coaching opportunity.

Waters' coaching experience also includes leading an all-star team to the 1988-89 Mexican International Tournament, where the squad won the event with an 8-0 record. In 1981, he coached the Detroit AAU national team that won all eight games en route to winning the Canadian National Tournament. Waters also has been a speaker at numerous camps and clinics around the country, including a clinic for FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, that was held in Frankfort, Germany.

In June, 2001, Waters had the distinction of serving as one of eight court coaches for the 2001 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The following year, Waters also served as an assistant coach for the 2002 USA Junior World Championship Qualifying Team, which competed in the Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations (COPABA) Men's Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela. Waters is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Black Coaches Association and is involved with many charitable organizations, including Coaches vs. Cancer. He was inducted into the Ferris State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Kent State Varsity "K" Hall of Fame in 2006.

Waters and his wife, Bernadette, have two grown children, son Sean and daughter, Seena, and four granchildren. They reside in Westlake.