Since taking over the St. John Fisher College program heading into the 2001-02 season, Rob Kornaker is among the winningest active coaches in NCAA Division III.
Kornaker, who owns a 318-126 record (.716 winning percentage), has led Fisher to seven Empire 8 Conference titles in the past 16 years and has helped the program earn 16 trips to the NCAA Division III Championship in the last 22 years.
Fisher is coming off another extremely successful campaign as Kornaker led the team to 23 wins in 2016-17. He guided the squad to its second-straight Empire 8 Championship title game appearance as well as the Cardinals won the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship. In the NCAA Division III Tournament, the Cardinals downed St. Lawrence in the first round before bowing out to Tufts University.
In 2015-17, Kornaker led the team to an Empire 8 Conference title as well. Fisher finished the season 25-5, advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Championship before falling to No. 1 Randolph Macon. During the impressive season, Fisher rattled of 18 consecutive wins marking the third-best win streak in the history of the 52-year old program.
In the 2010-11 season, Fisher made a move in the postseason by defeating No. 1 seeded Ithaca in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Conference tournament. Although the Cardinals fell short of an Empire 8 tournament championship with a loss to Hartwick in the final, the 15-12 record was the program’s 24th consecutive winning campaign.
In 2004-2005, Kornaker’s Cardinals finished with a 28-1 overall record, including an undefeated regular season. That season, Fisher set College records for wins in a season and consecutive wins (28) — and obtained the program’s highest national ranking, climbing to No. 3 in the d3hoops.com national poll. Fisher entered the 2005 postseason as the only undefeated team in all of college basketball at 27-0.
In the 2005-2006 season, Fisher advanced to the “Elite 8” of the NCAA Division III Championship, the furthest into the postseason the Cardinals have ever been in their 44-year history.
In the 2006-2007 season, Fisher finished with a 24-6 overall record, marking the program’s fifth-straight 20-win season, a feat accomplished by just five other institutions.
“Our success can be directly attributed to the hard work of our players and our entire coaching staff,” says Kornaker, who was named as DIII News Coach of the Year in 2005. “We’ve been very fortunate the last few years and we take great pride in what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
An All-Greater Rochester and All-Monroe County basketball player in high school, Kornaker graduated from Gates-Chili in 1986. He continued his career at Alfred University where he played four seasons of basketball and finished his career with 990 points.
Upon graduation, Kornaker accepted a position as a graduate assistant before becoming an assistant at Alfred State College. After one year at the junior college level, Kornaker returned to Division III basketball, guiding SUNY Geneseo to an appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16 during his four-year tenure as assistant coach.
In 1998, Kornaker finally landed at St. John Fisher College, but not as a part of the basketball program. He initially took a full-time position as the College’s director of residential life and got his foot in the door at the athletic department by serving as the head coach of the golf team. In 2000, Kornaker returned to his true sport, and became Fisher’s full-time assistant coach to then-head coach and current athletic director Bob Ward. In 2001, Ward stepped down as head coach and handed the reins over to Kornaker, thus becoming just the third coach in Fisher’s storied basketball history.
Rob and his wife, Leslie, live in Webster with their two children, Alexis and Griffin.
