Exclusive: Ross Hodge Values Loyalty, Talent on WVU Coaching Staff

PITTSBURGH — Ross Hodge will have a lot of familiar faces with him on the bench during his first season as WVU’s head coach. So far, Hodge has brought four assistant coaches along with I’m from North Texas to his staff at West Virginia.

WVU has officially announced the hirings of assistant coaches Mike Randle, Phil Forte and Jase Herl and Hodge announced that Johnny Estelle will be joining the group at the WVU Coaches Caravan event in Pittsburgh Friday evening.

Hodge is also bringing at least two members of the support staff with him from UNT, strength and conditioning coach Jason Martinez and director of video, scouting and analytics Sean McClurg.

“They’re all-in people,” Hodge told WVSN’s Mike Asti at the caravan event. “They’re obviously extremely talented and they have all had several opportunities when they could have left for better jobs as well, but they appreciate how we do things and the culture we’ve created. They’re big parts of that, they drive it and they’re loyal people.”

Hodge went 46-24 in two seasons as the head coach at North Texas with this staff. With most of the staff being young up-and-comers, Hodge said many of them had multiple chances to leave North Texas but chose to stay.

“They work incredibly hard and they’re also incredibly talented I’m fortunate to have them and I was fortunate to retain them when I was at North Texas,” Hodge said. “That’s why it was such a no-brainer to bring them with me.”

Estelle is the most experienced of the group with time as an assistant coach at Houston and two head coaching stints at Navarro College and Texas A&M-Kingsville. Randle coached in the prep and junior college ranks before joining Hodge. Herl joined Colorado State’s staff and was briefly interim head coach in 2016 before becoming associate head coach at Missouri State. Forte, who played in the Big 12 at Oklahoma State, has coached at Sam Houston and St. Louis.

When Hodge chose to move up to WVU, he thought all of them would have similar major-conference coaching opportunities, so he simply brought them with him to the Mountaineers.

“Whether they were coming with me or going to another school in the Big 12, I’d rather they be with me,” Hodge joked. “They’ve been a big part of why we’ve been able to hit the ground running putting together the roster we’ve put together.”

For a related story, WV Sports Now offers a tracker to help keep track of the spring roster moves for WVU basketball and Ross Hodge.