Wil Hooker is in his second year as an assistant men's basketball coach at FPU. He worked under former FPU coach Jim Saia at Columbia College as an assistant and also played for Saia at Fresno State, when Saia was an assistant coach.
Wil came to FPU from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, where he worked an an assistant coach for three seasons under Coach Kevin Bromley. Before that, Wil worked for one year at the Tarkanian Basketball Academy in Las Vegas, NV, under former Fresno State basketball assistant, Danny Tarkanian. He worked as a skills instructor, working with local youth and prep athletes as well as collegiate and professional athletes.
From 2001 to 2005, Wil was the head basketball coach at San Joaquin Memorial High School. During his tenure there, he resurrected the basketball program, returning it to one of the best high school programs in the Central Valley. He was fortunate to coach some excellent talent at Memorial, including Brook and Robin Lopez (who went on to Stanford and are now with the New Jersey Nets and Phoenix Suns, respectively) and Quincy Pondexter ( who attended Washington and is now with the New Orleans Hornets). During Wil's time at Memorial, they won numerous tournaments, league titles and valley championships.
Wil played basketball at Fresno State from 1988 to 1992. He was the all-time leading scorer with 1,739 points. He returned to Fresno State as a manager for the basketball team, coached by Jerry Tarkanian. After working for three seasons as the head manager and completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education, Wil was hired by Coach Tarkanian in 1997 as an assistant coach. For the next three seasons, Wil helped guide Fresno State to a conference and WAC tournament championship, as well as several post-season appearances.
