Waleed Farid was named the head coach of the men's basketball program on May 24, 2021. Farid becomes the 10th head coach for the men's basketball program, which began competition in 1929-30. In three seasons at Ithaca, Farid has compiled an overall record of 66-40.
After a 12-13 season in 2023-24, Farid guided the Bombers to a 19-10 mark in 2024-25, which included a Liberty League crown and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship. It was Ithaca’s first Liberty League title and NCAA appearance since 2019-20. Farid was tabbed Coach of the Year for Region 3 by D3hoops.com. Three members of this year’s team also earned postseason honors as Logan Wendell was named all-region by the NABC and D3hoops.com, to go along with a first team selection by the Liberty League, while Evan Cabral was a second team honoree in the Liberty League and Chris Leysath was the rookie of the year.
In 2022-23, Ithaca won the regular season Liberty League title and finished the year with an 18-8 record. Luka Radovich would be named all-region, while Logan Wendell was featured as the No. 1 play on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays for his no-look shot against Hamilton.
In his first season with the program, Farid guided IC to an overall record of 17-9 and a trip to the semifinals of the Liberty League Tournament as the No. 2 seed. Ithaca set a new school record for points in a game with 124 against Alfred State. Radovich and Skylar Sinon were named All-Liberty League, while Radovich was also named an all-region performer.
Farid comes to South Hill after spending the past five seasons as the head coach at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Farid won 49 games over the first four seasons, including 16 victories during his first year at Hartwick. Off the court, Hartwick achieved tremendous success in the classroom, earning the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award for the first time in school history in 2019-20. Outside of coaching, Farid was the founding member of Hartwick's diversity, equity and inclusion committee.
Farid mentored three Empire 8 All-Conference members at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season and had a D3hoops.com East Region and Empire 8 Rookie of the Year on his squad in 2017-18. Two more Hawks were named all-conference during Farid's first season.
Prior to Hartwick, Farid spent seven years serving as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology (2009-16) in Hoboken, N.J. In that time frame, Farid helped Stevens to a record of 127-67 and three 20-win seasons. He helped guide the Ducks to Empire 8 Tournament appearances in six of his seven seasons and two conference regular season titles. Stevens won the ECAC Metro Championship in 2011 and received an at-large berth into the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
During his time as an assistant, Stevens a total of 14 student-athletes received all-conference recognition, in addition to nods on the NABC All-District Team, the D3hoops.com All-Region Team, the ECAC All-Metro Region Team, and the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Team.
As a standout student-athlete at Stevens, Farid guided the Ducks to the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Tournament in 2007 and the program's first-ever ECAC Metro title in 2008. He graduated as the program's career leader in points, rebounds and steals, and still sits top-10 in several career categories. Farid was a three-time all-conference selection, a preseason All-American for the 2007-08 season, and he earned NABC All-Atlantic District and All-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association honors in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Farid graduated from Stevens in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in business and technology and was a presidential scholarship recipient. In 2013, Farid was inducted into the Stevens Athletic Hall of Fame.
After graduation, Farid went overseas to play for Alexandria Sporting Club in Egypt. He averaged 10 points in just 15 minutes per game.
Farid is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a personal trainer. He is also certified by Precision Nutrition as a Level 1 Nutrition Coach.
Farid resides in Ithaca with his wife of nine years, Jean, and their two children.
