“I always love watching him during the national anthem,” Gensler said. “He’s got one hand over his heart, and he keeps it going. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Gensler joined Shauna Green’s staff with the Dayton women’s basketball team in April. He and Calamity McEntire are the team’s two new assistant coaches.
Gensler, a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy near Syracuse, N.Y., where he was a teammate of future Duke star Greg Paulus, brings a wealth of knowledge about Atlantic 10 basketball to the job. He was a student manager and practice player for the St. Joseph’s women’s team during his undergraduate years. From 2011-13, he was an assistant coach at St. Bonaventure. In his first season with the Bonnies, they reached the Sweet 16.
McEntire excited about what she’s seen this summer
Now Gensler joins his third A-10 team.
“It’s just been ingrained in my mind that the A-10 breeds good basketball,” Gensler said.
A connection to the A-10 but also to Green brought Gensler to Dayton. He was the director of basketball operations and a graduate assistant at Providence College from 2009-11. Green was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Providence during that time.
Shauna and her husband Andy Green often had Gensler over for dinner during those seasons.
“She’s always preaching the family culture,” Gensler said, “and that’s all I knew her as, someone who would take care of me the same way she would take care of one of her own.”
In addition to working at St. Bonaventure, Providence and Loyola-Maryland, Gensler also spent two seasons as the video coordinator with the Florida Gators. That was his last stop before coming to Dayton. In March, he offered Green advice on playing Tennessee in the NCAA tournament because the Gators saw the Volunteers in Southeastern Conference play.
In Gainesville, Gensler played a big part in the program’s social media accounts. That’s something he has brought to Dayton as well. UD wants to promote itself on all the platforms — Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook — because it can connect to young recruits.
The goal, Gensler said, is to “give them an intimate look at what our family culture looks like here.”
Gensler has seen that culture among the players from the moment he stepped on campus.
“They’re really passionate,” he said. “That was the first thing I noticed. That’s a tribute to Shauna establishing her culture here in year one and very much setting the tone that we’re going to be a family and we’re going to take care of each other.”
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