Ricky Hernandez will continue with the Loyola coaching staff as an assistant coach starting in 2024-25 after serving as the program’s director of operations in 2023-24.
Hernandez initially came to the Evergreen campus last summer from nearby Johns Hopkins University where he was an assistant coach for current Head Coach Josh Loeffler from 2018-23.
“Ricky has helped three collegiate programs win championships and it is not a coincidence,” said Loeffler. “He is great at building relationships, thorough in all his work, and a talented coach. I am thrilled to be back working with him and know that he will be integral to our success at Loyola.”
In his first season with the Greyhounds, Hernandez led the Greyhounds operational needs of travel, video, academics and game preparation, while also serving on the court with the player development of Loyola players.
The 2008 graduate of West Chester University was the top assistant on the Johns Hopkins group that was name the 2023 Centennial Conference Coaching Staff of the Year as the Blue Jays reached the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time 2015 and finished the year with a school-record-tying 25 wins.
He helped the Blue Jays to a 90-22 (.803) record, two Centennial Conference Championships and three NCAA bids in his five seasons at Johns Hopkins (including the 2020-2021 season when no official games were played).
Hernandez worked with 10 All-Centennial Conference players, including two-time league player of the year Connor Delaney, a First-Team All-American, and two-time conference Defensive Player of the Year Sidney Thybulle.
In 2020, Hernandez was named one of the top NCAA Division III assistant coaches nationally by the Minority Coaches Association.
Prior to joining the staff at Johns Hopkins, Hernandez was an assistant for two seasons at Moravian College where the Greyhounds won a pair of Landmark Conference regular-season titles, the 2018 league tournament and earned a bid to that season’s NCAA Championships.
In his first year on the staff at the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, school, Moravian won 19 games, the program’s most since 1987-88, and the following year, the Greyhounds set a school record with 20 wins.
Hernandez gained his first collegiate coaching experience at East Stroudsburg University at the NCAA Division II level where he was a graduate assistant coach from 2014-16. He coached two Honorable Mention All-Americans, three All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) players and helped the Warriors win the PSAC East title in 2015.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at West Chester, and he received his master’s in organizational development and leadership from St. Joseph’s University.
