June 25, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State's head basketball coach Stew Morrill announced Wednesday the hiring of Tarvish Felton as an assistant for the Aggies. Felton replaces James Ware who was recently named the top assistant at Santa Clara University.

Felton brings nine years of coaching experience with him to Utah State after spending the 2007-08 season as an assistant at Sacramento State. Combined, Felton has coached 11 players who have earned all-conference honors.

"We are excited about Tarvish joining our staff," said Morrill. "He brings experience at the Division I level as well as an appreciation for the state of Utah. Tarvish comes highly recommended by people that I know and trust. He is a high character individual who I expect to be very productive in the many facets of being an assistant coach."

Felton began his coaching career as an assistant at Southern Utah during the 1999-2000 season, before spending two years at Cal State Los Angeles. He then spent the 2002-03 academic year starting the Texas A&M-International program and served as its head coach for three seasons, followed by another one-year stint as an assistant at Southern Utah before moving on to Sacramento State.

"I am very honored and excited to join the staff here at Utah State," said Felton. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Morrill and what he has done at USU, and look forward to learning from him while assisting in the continued success of the program."

A 1999 graduate of Southern Utah with a bachelor's degree in physical education, Felton was a two-time IHC Health Plans state player of the year as a junior and senior. Also during his senior season, he received all-Mid-Continent Conference honors and was named Southern Utah's academic athlete of the year for basketball. All-time, Felton ranks third in Southern Utah history in blocked shots (68), fifth in steals (139) and seventh in rebounding (505).

Felton, who is a native of Perry, Ga., played his freshman season at Northeast College in Norfolk, Neb.