Rob Pryor was named the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017.
The 2021-22 season was Pryor's best thus far at the academy. He led the Mariners to a 15-10 overall record, including a 12-4 mark in Skyline Conference action. USMMA finished atop the Skyline North Division and earned the #2 seed in the Skyline Tournament. The Mariners were selected to the ECAC Tournament, which was the first postseason tournament for the program in 12 years (2009-10). Merchant Marine garnered two major postseason awards from the Skyline Conference, as sophomore Bryce Bristow earned Skyline Defensive Player of the Year accolades and Pryor was named the 2021-22 Skyline Conference Co-Coach of the Year. The Mariners also took home USMMA's Academic Dean's Award for a small team for the 2021-22 school year.
USMMA played just four games in 2020-21, a season severly impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. However the Mariners produced a winning record of 3-1.
In 2019-20, Pryor brought USMMA back to a postseason conference tournament for the first time in six seasons (2013-14), as the Mariners dramatically came from behind on the road to defeat Skyline-rival SUNY Maritime, 85-80, in the last regular season game to steal the final playoff spot from the Privateers. Merchant Marine earned double-digit wins for the first time since 2015-16. Under Pryor's mentorship, James Walsh '21 was selected as the 2017-18 Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year.
No stranger to the way of life at a federal academy, Pryor is a 1997 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He also coached as an assistant with the Falcons’ men’s basketball team for five seasons. This will help him understand the unique learning situations and regimented lifestyles that the Midshipmen at USMMA experience here at Kings Point.
Pryor comes to the Mariners after spending the past six seasons at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., where he was just the second full-time head coach in Hornets’ program history. He oversaw the program’s move from the USA South Athletic Conference to the very competitive Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Under his tenure between the two conferences, Pryor coached four student-athletes that were honored as All-Conference players and had an impressive 25 student-athletes earn Academic All-Conference accolades.
Pryor has extensive NCAA Division I coaching experience. In addition to his five years with the Falcons, Pryor was an assistant to University of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery for one year at Siena – 2006-07.
The Saints had a 20-12 record and made an appearance in the championship game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament during Pryor's one season at the Loudonville, N.Y. school and McCaffery was named the MAAC Coach of the Year.
In 2005-06, under former Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik, Pryor helped Air Force return to the NCAA Tournament as an assistant varsity and head junior varsity coach. The Falcons had their best-ever season that year, finishing 24-7, and led the nation in scoring defense while finishing fourth in 3-point shooting percentage.
This coaching stint came at the end of a three-year period in which Pryor coached at the USAFA Preparatory School as both a volunteer and then the program's head coach. The Prep School was 74-27 in his three years there, including a 31-3 campaign in 2003-04.
His volunteer coaching experience occurred as he was teaching in the behavioral science department at the Academy. In his final season at the Prep School (04/05), he headed up that program.
After graduating from the Academy in 1997 with a degree in human behavior, Pryor earned a master's degree in education with an emphasis in counseling in 1998 from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Following his schooling, he began his first Air Force assignment as a contracting officer at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
During his four-year stint at Langley, Pryor earned an MBA degree at the College of William & Mary before returning to the Academy in 2002.
Pryor and his wife, Ashleigh, are the proud parents of four sons: Salem, Seth, Sion and Amare.
