Hiatt named head coach at Westminster

Bonners Ferry High School graduate Adam Hiatt was named the new head coach for  the men’s basketball program at Westminster College.

Hiatt is a graduate of Westminster College who played for former coach Tommy Connor.

He is a Bonners Ferry native and graduated from BFHS in 1997. He is the son of Russ and Sulet Hiatt, also of Bonners Ferry.

He served an LDS mission in Argentina from 1998-2000.

Upon his return, Hiatt played two seasons at Ricks College (BYU-Idaho) where he led his teams in scoring and was an all-conference (Region XVIII) performer both years.

Hiatt then accepted an offer to play for coach Connor at Westminster College. During his time at Westminster, Hiatt guided the Griffins to a pair of Frontier Conference championships.

He earned Frontier Conference First Team honors both years, and was a two-time NAIA All-American. During his senior, season Hiatt was the conference scoring champion (22 ppg) and led his team to the to the program’s first Sweet Sixteen appearance at the NAIA National Tournament.

Hiatt is Westminister's career leader in scoring at 1,384 points and his 809 points scored in the 2003-04 season is the most in school history.

After earning a degree in History from Westminster, Hiatt attended graduate school at Brigham Young University where he earned a master’s degree in Geography in 2006.

Upon graduation he worked as an assistant coach for the University of Idaho. Hiatt then left the Vandals to join Connor’s staff.

Connor is leaving the program to take an assistant coach position at the University of Utah.

“Today is an emotionally conflicting day for me,” Hiatt said. “Professionally, I am grateful and excited to be taking over as the head coach at Westminster College.

“On a personal level, I am losing a great friend and mentor in Coach Connor. I feel fortunate that he has prepared me for this moment and I am confident that we can continue to have success as one of the premier small college basketball programs in the country.”

Hiatt becomes just the second head coach since the team was reinstated in 1999 and the fourth since 1956. He spent the past three seasons as the lead assistant to Connor after spending one year as an assistant coach at the University of Idaho.

Hiatt has been married to his wife Jenica for five years. They are the proud parents of one daughter, Addelei, 3, and son, Jaxon, 1.