LaMonta Stone Hometown: Detroit, Mich. Position: Assistant Coach Experience: Four Seasons

LaMonta Stone (pronounced la-MON-tay) recently concluded his fourth season as an assistant coach to the Falcon program. He joined the BGSU staff in August of 2004.

In the 2007-08 season, Stone helped the Falcons to a 13-17 record. BGSU more than doubled the MAC win total from the previous season, going 7-9 in conference play in 2007-08 after a 3-13 league mark the previous winter.

Those seven MAC wins included victories over the teams picked to finish first, second and third in the East Division in the 2007-08 preseason poll. One of those wins came over Kent State, the eventual MAC champion and a nationally-ranked team at the time, in the Falcons' final home game on March 1, 2008.

Stone, a native of Detroit, came to BGSU after serving two years as an assistant at Ohio State under coach Jim O'Brien. The Buckeyes posted a 17-15 record in the 2002-03 season, advancing to the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament and earning a berth in the NIT. OSU went 14-16 in the 2003-04 campaign.

Stone had Mid-American Conference coaching experience prior to his time at BGSU. He was an assistant on head coach Jim Boone's Eastern Michigan staff for two seasons, from 2000 to 2002, prior to moving to Columbus.

Stone joined the EMU staff after spending six seasons as the head boy's basketball coach at his alma mater, River Rouge High School, where he directed one of the most successful high school programs in the state of Michigan. Stone led the Panthers to back-to-back Class B state championships in 1998 and 1999, with both of those teams earning Top-25 national rankings in the USA Today poll. In his six seasons, Stone guided River Rouge to an overall record of 126-24.

Five of Stone's River Rouge teams won district titles and three were regional champions. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press named Stone Coach of the Year in 1999. He also was singled out for that honor by the Michigan Coaches Association in 1997.

Stone graduated from River Rouge High School in 1984 after participating in basketball, track and football. He went on to earn an associate's degree at Henry Ford Community College in 1990 and completed his bachelor's degree in psychology at Wayne State University in 1999.

He began his coaching career in 1990 as a volunteer boys basketball coach at River Rouge. He went on to become an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1991-94 before returning to River Rouge as the head coach in 1994.

Stone and his wife, Tamica, have two sons, LaMonta II, 10, and Lance, who was born in February of 2007.