Darren Guensch - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Richmond Athletics

Darren Guensch

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
dguensch@richmond.edu
Phone:
289-8484

Guensch enters his third season as an assistant coach with the Spiders. Guensch is responsible for scheduling opponents for Richmond and coaches the post players. Guensch helped UR improve to 13-9 in 2020-21, including a win against George Washington in the A-10 Championship second round. He also coached Addie Budnik, who earned A-10 Rookie of the Year honors (only the second Rookie of the Year in school history) and was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team.

In 2019-20, Guensch guided Atlantic 10 All-Conference forward Jaide Hinds-Clarke to a third-team selection. Guensch was able to add a three-point shot to Hinds-Clarke's game after hitting 23 3's in her senior season (0 3's in her first three years). Guensch helped the Spiders to 15 wins in 2019-20 and post a six-win improvement. Under his guidance, freshman forward Elaina Chapman led the team with 31 blocks.

Guensch brings 10-plus years of Division I coaching experience, including 2018-19 at Bucknell where he helped the team earned a school record 28 wins and a trip to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Patriot League title. He coached three all-conference players in Ellie Mack, Kaitlyn Slagus and Kate Walker. All three were also named to the All-Tournament team with Slagus winning the MVP award. The Bison were 15-1 at home and broke the school record for three-pointers made at 283.

Guensch spent two seasons as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at East Carolina, where he helped the Pirates to the largest turnaround in the American Athletic Conference with a five-win improvement in league play from the 2016-17 season to the 2017-18 season. The 2017 recruiting class played a large part in that turnaround, accounting for 67 percent of the team's points and 54 percent of its rebounds.

Prior to his time at East Carolina, Guensch spent six seasons as an assistant coach at three different Division I schools – College of Charleston (2014-16), UNCG (2012-14), and VCU (2010-12). He also held the title of recruiting coordinator at both College of Charleston and UNCG.

Guensch mentored multiple players to major conference awards while at College of Charleston and UNCG. Breanna Bolden was a two-time Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-CAA player for the Cougars, while Lucy Mason was the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year while Guensch was on staff and later went on to become the first CoSIDA Academic All-American in program history.

Guensch began his collegiate coaching career at VCU, where he spent the first two seasons as the director of basketball operations before being promoted to the coaching staff. The Rams went 86-47 during his four seasons with the team and qualified for four national postseason tournaments. They made their first ever NCAA Tournament in 2009 and followed that with three straight appearances in the WNIT. The Rams advanced to the WNIT Third Round in 2010 and 2012.

At VCU, Guensch was responsible for the player development of two CAA All-Rookie Team players and one two-time All-CAA guard.
Prior to his four years at VCU, Guensch served as the director of basketball operations for two seasons at George Mason. Before that he spent one season as an assistant coach for the Loudoun County High School girls basketball team.

Guensch graduated from Radford in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in exercise, sport and health education before earning a master's degree in the same discipline at George Mason in 2012. He married his wife, Devon, in 2007 and the couple welcomed their first child, Miles, in 2011 and their second, Layna, in 2016.