DeVries building initial staff at West Virginia
West Virginia Head Coach Darian DeVries is putting his first coaching staff in Morgantown together.
DeVries began the process armed with a war chest of $1.4 million to entice potential options to West Virginia in an assistant salary pool per Athletic Director Wren Baker.
That funding was to be allocated to the five assistant coaching slots on the roster while there would be additional money available for off-the-court positions such as recruiting, player personnel, director of operations and strength coach, among other positions in the program.
“That $1.4 million is a big increase from where we were but I feel like it’s important to make sure the coach can build a staff that’s competitive at the top of the league,” Baker said.
DeVries made a splash hiring in luring Chester Frazier from his alma mater at Illinois to become the Associate Head Coach with the Mountaineers. Frazier is set to make $575,000 according to a Freedom of Information Act request and will be under contract until April 30, 2026. Frazier is a well-renowned recruiter and a top developer of talent who brings an element of toughness and grit to his teachings.
Another major piece was former Nevada assistant Kory Barnett who essentially served as the defensive coordinator for the Wolfpack and is a respected tactician on that end of the floor. He will be making $325,000 and will be under contract until April 30, 2025.
The third assistant under contract is Nick Norton, who followed DeVries over from Drake. Norton will serve as an assistant coach and Director of Player Development and will make $150,000 through April 30, 2025.
That would be a total of $1,050,000 allocated to the three assistants so far leaving $350,000 remaining in order to fill out what the remaining additions could be. That doesn’t mean that West Virginia has to fill both slots but could elect to do so with the funding remaining in the pool.
DeVries made it clear that from a staff perspective, he wants to ensure that West Virginia can cover all regions on the country in terms of recruiting in order to identify and secure their desired types of players.
The Mountaineers have already used some of that additional funding to hire Hernandez at $250,000.
The staff is certainly coming together, but there is still some wiggle room for DeVries to round things out.
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