Former Georgetown Hoyas basketball head coach Craig Escherick became a member of the Springbrook High School Athletic Hall of Fame last month, joining James Castonguay, Jim Dunne, Omar Evans, Thomas Higdon, Darren McLinton, Ria Peralta, Jenni Pfeiffer, and Kevin Williamson as inductees.
Esherick graduated from Springbrook in 1974. ARLnow reports that Esherick was “a solid outside shooter for Springbrook, where he was chosen all-county and all-state, along with being selected all-Met by The Washington Post and now-defunct Washington Star newspapers. Averaging 18 points per game his senior season, Esherick scored a career-high 38 points in one game for Springbrook and 26 in his final contest, a semifinal loss in the Maryland state tournament. Esherick helped the Blue Devils win county championships and reach the state tournament as a sophomore, junior and senior.”
After his time at Springbrook, Esherick was a scholarship basketball player at Georgetown University, where he earned a degree in finance. He later attended the Georgetown University Law Center, serving as a graduate assistant coach for the basketball team during his studies.
After graduating from law school and passing the DC Bar, he became a full-time assistant coach for the Georgetown men’s basketball team. Over his impressive 17 and a half years as an assistant, he also contributed as a scout and assistant coach for the USA Olympic Team, which won a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In 1999, Craig was appointed head basketball coach at Georgetown, taking over for the legendary John Thompson and achieved a 103-74 record from 1999-2004. According to his George Mason bio, where he is currently a professor, from 2004 to 2005 he briefly worked for AOL’s new online radio venture, providing commentary on college basketball and writing articles for the AOL Sports website. In May 2005, he joined a startup television network in New York, which has since evolved into CBS College Sports. Prior to coming to Mason, Esherick taught in NYU’s Graduate Sport Management program for two years.