On Nov. 8, Swarthmore men’s basketball team will open their 2025-2026 season with a game against Albertus Magnus College.
The rematch, nearly a decade in the making, will not just be another game for Swarthmore basketball. The season is also Shane Loeffler ’16’s first as the team’s head coach. After the 2024-2025 season, former Head Coach Landry Kolamanski stepped down to take an associate head coaching position at Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC, Loeffler accepted the promotion in April 2025.
In his first season as the head coach, Loeffler is no stranger to the program, both as a player and coach. Loeffler, who played for the Garnet from 2o12-2016, joined the coaching staff in 2o17. With seven years of coaching experience and four years of playing under his belt, Loeffler understands the values and legacy of Swarthmore men’s basketball like no other.
“For the last decade, the goal has always been to win the conference and go and compete for a national title,” Loeffler said. This year’s goal remains the same. However, the first-year head coach doesn’t want this to be the priority of the team. Instead, he wants to focus on improving as a team everyday.
“The goals are in the back of the desk in a sense, but we focus more on what we are trying to achieve each day. If we can do that and we can get a little bit better each day, eventually we get ourselves in a position to achieve our goals,” Loeffler said. Reaching these daily goals would mark a great change for the team following a “down year” by the program’s standards, as they finished fifth in the conference and lost in the first round of the Centennial Conference tournament to Ursinus College.
The Garnet squad also faces roster changes after two highly successful senior players graduated in 2025.
While these are big losses, Swarthmore basketball remains confident in its ability to fill in the gaps. “Rebounding has always been a focus (of our program), the same thing as defensive intensity and using our team’s IQ to take advantage of scouting reports of other teams,” Loeffler said. While the team may have lost one of their tallest players, Aiden Godfrey ’25, Loeffler stated, “our [first years], even though they are not outliers in height, are all big. Our team across the board has gotten bigger, even if our tallest guy did not.” This team is not completely without height either, as they have two players above the height of 6′ 7.” One is 6′ 9” sophomore forward Isaac Wright-Muller ’28, returning to Swarthmore after playing for the Under-19 Panama national team.
The Garnet team will be led by eleven upperclassmen and an impressive young core highlighted by sophomore guard Zander Jimenez ’28. Jimenez is coming off an impressive first year where he was named the Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year (ROTY) and was selected into the All-Conference Second Team. Jimenez was the only first year to receive all-conference honors, and joins Vinny DeAngelo ’24 as being the only players to win the ROTY for Swarthmore.
While certain players may be pivotal pieces for the squad, individual success has never been the priority of the team. “We don’t push a lot of individual narratives because the reality is that every player is using their strengths to push this team as far as they can go,” Loeffler said. No one player will push this team over the top; everyone playing and working together will really allow this team to succeed.
The Garnet’s first home game of the season will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 12, against Neumann University, with conference play beginning on Dec. 6 on the road against Johns Hopkins University.
