Lewis University Athletics

E-mail Coach Wierzba Ben Wierzba is in his second season as assistant coach at Lewis University. Wierzba came to Lewis following two seasons as director of basketball operations at the United States Military Academy. He was assistant coach at Saint Joseph's (Ind.) in 2001-02, graduate assistant at the University of North Dakota in 2000-01 and student assistant at his alma mater, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, in 1999-2000. Wierzba played two seasons and earned all-region and all-conference honors at Lake Land College before transferring to NCAA Division I program University of South Alabama, where he played on the Jaguars' 1997-98 NCAA tournament team. The Farmington, Ill., native concluded his career at SIUE in 1998-99, averaging 12.6 points per game, leading the Cougars in 3-point shooting (40.9 percent) and foul shooting (82.6 percent) and collecting All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honorable-mention recognition. He received a bachelor's degree in liberal studies at SIUE in 2000. "We're very fortunate to have someone of Ben's experience, qualifications and knowledge of the game," Head Coach Kyle Green said. "His basketball background is a tremendous asset to our program. "Ben is a true basketball 'gym rat', which is the kind of coach we need," Green added. "More importantly, he has a great family background and is an even better person than coach."