The New Direction For Chestnut Hill College Women's Hoops: West

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Division II Chestnut Hill College didn't have to look very far to find its new head women's basketball coach. The Griffins have hired Mike West to take over the program. The 30-year-old West spent the last four seasons serving as an assistant at Philadelphia University, the Griffins crosstown rival in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

"It's incredibly exciting," West tells KYW Newsradio. "It's kind of a dream come true and I'm really excited to get going. It's an amazing opportunity. I'm thankful to Chestnut Hill for giving me the opportunity and I'm also thankful to Tom Shirley and the whole Philadelphia University family for a wonderful experience over the last four years with them and now I'm ready to take the next step."

Listen to the entire interview with Chestnut Hill's Mike West:

West will be the third coach for the Chestnut Hill women's program since it went Division II back in 2007. He takes over a team that went 10-16 in 2014-15.

"The first thing that I want to get is I want to get quality young women in there and build a program that people can look at and say you know what, it's a good program, they have good players, they have good student-athletes that represent the college, our team and their families well," West says. "As far style, the conference is getting athletic every year, more and more athletic. So I want athletic people who can get up and down the court. I want to play up tempo, I want to make it exciting. I want the girls to have fun playing. I want it to be an environment where people want to come watch us and enjoy watching the games."

The last four years West spent time under one of the city's most successful coaches in Philly U's Tom Shirley, who has won 683 games in his college basketball career. West says they were four years very well spent.

"You really learn from him how to treat your players as people and you really learn how to care for them," West says. "He always cares about his players, treats them like adults, treats them with respect and I think that goes a long way. I think a lot of people look back and say, 'Tom Shirley really helped me, on and off the court, and treated me like a human being.' So I think that's one of the biggest things that I have to take away is how you treat your players. And he's incredibly organized. He's so organized it leaves less room for error and allows everything to move so smoothly."

West will get the chance to match up against Shirley this coming season as Chestnut Hill and Philadelphia University will play each other twice.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.