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University of Idaho Athletics

Kirk Earlywine

Kirk Earlywine joined Idaho in 2012-13 as the team’s Director of Player Development before becoming an assistant coach with the Vandals. A 30-plus-year college coaching veteran, Earlywine handles the scheduling efforts for the Vandals.

With Earlywine coordinating the defense, the Vandals enjoyed one of the best three-year stretches in program history from 2105-18.  Over the stretch, Idaho won 62 total games and finished in the top-three in defense all three years.  The Vandals also advanced to a pair of postseason tournaments, and earned byes in the Big Sky Tournament all three years.

Before joining the Vandals, Earlywine was the head coach at Eastern Washington University for four years from 2007-11, during which time he registered a 42-78 record. In his time at EWU, the Eagles had a 964 APR score and a 100-percent graduation rate. His 2010-11 Eagle squad qualified for the Big Sky Tournament for the first time in five years, despite starting the season as one of the youngest teams in the country.

Earlywine also has a head coaching stop at Division II Pfeiffer University, which he led to a 21-8 overall record and a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the team’s first season at the D-II level.

His assistant coaching experience started in 1985-87 at Campbell University, where he was a student assistant. He was an assistant under head coach Rick Majerus for seven years at Ball State (1987-89) and Utah (1989-93) and was associate head coach at Weber State from 1999-06. In his time at WSU, the Wildcats led the Big Sky Conference with 116 victories, including a 2003 Big Sky title and NCAA Tournament bid.  Earlywine also held assistant positions at Central Michigan (1993-95), UW-Milwaukee (1996-99) and UNC Wilmington (2006-07). Earlywine spent the 2011-12 season doing television play-by-play and color commentary for men’s basketball games.

Earlywine is originally from Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from Campbell University in 1987.
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