Rich Shayewitz - photo coming

SSU Alumnus, Past President SSU Alumni Association, UCSD Assistant Basketball Coach

Rich Shayewitz - photo coming

Shayewitz is the immediate Past President of the SSU Alumni Association.  

Shayewitz came to Sonoma State University as a undergraduate in the fall of 1995 and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Business Marketing in the spring of 2000.  During that time, he volunteered as a student assistant coach on the SSU men's basketball team under head coach Pat Fuscaldo and has been on the sidelines ever since. He was later promoted to Associate Head Coach just prior to the 2006-07 season.

Rich Shayewitz joined the UC San Diego coaching staff in 2025-26 after spending the four prior seasons as the head coach at Division II Sonoma State. In 2024-25, the Seawolves posted a 12-16 mark in the program's final season. In 2022-23, Shayewitz coached sophomore phenom Jaylen Wells, the CCAA Player of the Year. 

In 2020, Rich Shayewitz was appointed interim Director of Basketball making him the head coach for both the men and the women's programs at Sonoma State. With no athletic competition during the 2020-21 academic year, Shayewitz led both programs during the 2021-22 season and took on his first season at the helm of the men's program and his fifth and final year with the women's program.

In his 19 seasons with the men's team, Shayewitz was instrumental in assisting the program to four NCAA tournament appearances, including when the Seawolves were crowned the NCAA Division II statistical champion in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a nation's-best 57.8 points per game. He was also credited for his help in the team's 2005-06 CCAA Championship run and six CCAA tournament appearances since.

In addition to his efforts on the sideline, Shayewitz has also served as the Academic and Eligibility Student-Athlete Advisor for the SSU athletic department years prior.  He also holds two Master's degrees; one in Health, Physical Education and Recreation from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, and another in Business from Sonoma State.  

Shayewitz was the 8th head coach in the history of the Sonoma State men's basketball program.