Thomas Messinger begins his first season with the Navy men’s basketball team in the fall of 2026.
At NJIT (2023-24 to 2025-26)
Messinger arrives in Annapolis after having spent three seasons as an assistant coach at NJIT.
After the team won a combined 13 games in his first two years, NJIT 16 games during the 2025-26 season. The Highlanders also won a school-record 10 conference games during his final season, played host to a quarterfinal round game as a top-four seed in the America East Conference for the first time since joining the conference for the 2019-20 season and made its first trip to the semifinals.
At Hargrave Military Academy (2012-13 to 2022-23)
Messinger began his coaching career at Hargave Military Academy.
He first served as the head coach of the school’s varsity program for two seasons (2014-14 to 2015-16). He was named the Virginia Independent Conference Coach of the Year and also Hargrave’s Coach of the Year over those two seasons.
Messinger was elevated to an assistant coach and later the associate head coach for Hargrave’s Postgraduate Team, a position in which he served for five seasons (2015-16 to 2019-20). The team compiled a 203-15 record during his five years, which featured 49 players who advanced to NCAA Division I schools and teams that won the 2016 National Prep Championship, reached the 2017 and ‘20 Final Fours and the Elite Eight round of the tournament in 2019.
He then served as the head coach of the team for three seasons (2020-21 through 2022-23), during which time his squads posted an overall record of 114-8, were ranked among the top-three teams in the country all three years and was the nation’s top-ranked team in his final season with a 44-2 record.
Messinger was named the Next Up Recruits National Postgraduate Coach of the Year and the Elite prep League Coach of the Year in his final season, which included his team winning the EPL regular season and tournament titles.
Messinger also served as Hargrave’s Director of Admissions (2014-16) and Director of Athletics (2018-20).
Playing Career
The native of Northampton, Mass., graduated from Northampton High School and spent a postgraduate year at Deerfield Academy. He was named the team’s MVP and earned All-NEPSAC and All-Region honors in his lone year at Deerfield.
Messinger then attended Emerson College where the team won a program-record 24 games during this freshman season (2007-08). He left the school ranked second in the conference’s history with 252 career three-point field goals made and with a three-point percentage of 44.0 percent. Messinger was named the team MVP and was a Great Northeast Athletic Conference All-Star selection as a senior.
A member of the school’s President’s List for academics and an academic all-conference honoree, he graduated from Emerson in 2011 with a degree in marketing, then attained a master’s degree in teaching from Smith College in 2012.
