TOWSON, MD – Towson University men's basketball head coach
Pat Skerry has announced the hiring of
Brandon Held as a volunteer assistant coach for the remainder of the 2023-24 season, effective January 29.
Held, who graduated in December with a business administration degree, has spent the last two-and-a- half seasons on the Tigers roster as a walk-on. In 17 career games, he has scored seven points, including a career-best four points against Arcadia earlier this season. The 6-foot-3 guard has been a valuable member of the scout team during his time at Towson.
He will dress tonight versus Drexel and Saturday afternoon at Delaware before transitioning into the coaching role.
"Brandon has been a really strong addition to the program. He is what you want in a student-athlete. He is a good student, a great citizen, a hard worker and a super teammate," Skerry said. "Those qualities are going to transfer over into the game of life and make him really successful. His contributions to the program do not show up in the stat sheet but they help our program, especially to the coaching staff."
Held graduated from Marriotts Ridge High School where he scored 1,026 career points and earned First-Team All-Howard County honors as a senior in 2018-19. He originally committed to play basketball at Division III St. Mary's, but after a few practices in the fall 2019, decided he would rather walk-on at a Division I program and follow the footsteps of his father, Rich, who spent two seasons as a walk-on at Loyola in 1991-92 and 1992-93.
After arriving at Towson in January 2020, Held used a connection in the athletics department to meet Skerry who agreed to have Held join his team after that season's Final Four. However, the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded and he was not allowed into the team bubble for the entire 2020-21 season. Held officially joined the roster in 2021-22 and was part of the squad that captured the CAA regular championship.
"It has been a great experience playing college basketball and creating relationships with teammates," Held said. "It is exciting to have the opportunity to stay with the team the rest of the season – hopefully deep into March."
Held, who graduated with a 3.35 grade point average and was member of the CAA Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll, will begin working as a real estate agent in the Outer Banks, North Carolina region following the end of basketball season.
