College of the Desert Men's Basketball has removed the interim tag on head coach Robert Romero, hiring the Roadrunners coach to helm the program.

Romero, who spent two seasons as an assistant and last season as the interim head coach with Desert, looks to turn around a Roadrunners program that has had one above .500 season since the 2007-08 season.

"I am looking forward to getting back to work on the court. I love just seeing athletes working on their craft day in and day out to accomplish the goals they have set for themselves," Coach Romero said in a recent interview with COD Athletics.com. "Seeing the determination to get better and then the improvement over time with these young men to be the best they can be is what I love most about my job."

Coach Romero is a Coachella Valley native, graduating from Palm Desert High School in 2012. He attended Grossmont College in La Mesa, where he was twice named to the All-Pacific Coast Athletic Conference team.

"It is extremely humbling and a blessing to be named the Head's Men Basketball Coach at College of the Desert," commented Coach Romero. "I am very grateful to Andree Pacheco and Gary Plunkett for giving me the opportunity to continue leading this program and I am just mostly excited about the opportunity going forward."

After his time as a member of the Grossmont Griffins, Coach Romero received an athletic scholarship to the Western Colorado University Mountaineers in Gunnison, Colorado. After his junior year, he transferred and played for the #1 ranked NAIA team in the nation and went on to get his bachelor's degree in Business-Sports Management from the Mid-America Christian University (MACU) Evangels in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Following his college career, Coach Romero moved back to the Coachella Valley and was hired on as an assistant coach for two years at College of the Desert.

"I would just like recruits and their families know when they commit to College of the Desert, they are coming to a program that focused on the well-being of the student athlete. For me and my assistant coaches it is about creating relationships with our players that last beyond their time at College of the Desert," continued Coach Romero. "Helping them with on/off the court issues they face on a day-to-day basis is a priority to us as they transition into being young men."

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For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.

Information & Story provided by COD Sports Information. Photo by Michael Leone Photography (f8leone@yahoo.com).