(Photo credit Keith Walters/Geneseo Athletics)
Scott Hemer has called Batavia home now for 16 years.
He is currently the head coach of the SUNY Geneseo Women’s Basketball team and previously he was head coach at GCC.
Hemer and the team finished their regular season on Saturday with a 25-0 record after defeating visiting Cortland 74-39.
The team is the top seed for the SUNYAC Tournament for the second time in three seasons and will play the winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal game between Cortland(4th seed) and Fredonia(5th seed). That game will be played Friday February 24th at Schrader Gymnasium at 7:30p.m.
(Photo credit Keith Walters/Geneseo Athletics)
“We have great internal leadership and we are playing for a purpose after two tragedies in the past year,” says Hemer.
In January of 2016, Senior Captain Kelsey Annese died in a double murder suicide and in December of 2016 Freshman Savannah Williams died in a car accident.
The team has managed to get through the tragedies together and come out stronger as the season progressed.
They are two games shy of the program record 27 straight victories by the 1992-93 Geneseo Knights team.
(Photo credit Keith Walters/Geneseo Athletics)
For the last 10 years Hemer has been racking up the wins as head coach in Geneseo. Before that, he spent 6 years at GCC as head coach. The Cougars had a record of 147-40 under Hemer and the team participated in the NJCAA National Tournament after winning the NJCAA WNY Athletic Conf. Region III and District C championships.
He was named the 2006-07 NJCAA National District C Coach of the Year and earned NJCAA Region III Coach of the Year on three occasions. He also mentored five NJCAA All-Americans during his time at GCC.
Hemer, a native of North Collins, started coaching basketball in Fredonia as an assistant coach for three years. Then while he was teaching Social Studies at Gowanda High School, he started coaching varsity girls basketball and remained there for four years.
The St. Bonaventure University graduate has had five teams with 20 win seasons in the last six years at Geneseo.
A few weeks ago the team was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter and was awarded one of the shows 3 Stars.
The show’s anchor called the Geneseo Knights Women’s Basketball team inspiring and the the most remarkable team in all of basketball.
(Photo credit Keith Walters/Geneseo Athletics)
Hemer says the story was neat, but says the team has been playing with a purpose all season long.
“One thing I can tell you is that this group of girls is everything that’s right with sports.”
“They love each other and it shows in the way they play and the success they have had on the court.”