Stephan Walton

Canisius University Athletics

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Title

Assistant Coach
Email

waltons@canisius.edu

Stephan Walton enters his second season as an assistant coach at Canisius. In his role, Walton specializes in defense and guard development. Walton also oversees NIL management among the team.

Walton helped guard Franka Wittenberg have a career season in 2024-25, seeing significant increases from her previous school. In the 2023-24 season at Fresno State, Wittenberg recorded 32.2% field goal percentage, 26.8% three-point field goal percentage while averaging 3.8 points per game and accumulated 28 assists. At Canisius, Wittenberg improved to 41.5% field goal percentage, 31.0% three-point field goal percentage (33.3% in conference play) while averaging 8.4 points per game and totaled 74 assists on the season.

Jaela Johnson was another guard that saw significant improvement under Walton compared to her previous college career. Prior to Canisius, Johnson averaged 32.4% field goal percentage and 28.7% three-point field goal percentage while averaging 5.7 points and 1.6 assists per game over her career. With Canisius, Johnson saw her numbers jump with a 36.8% field goal percentage, 32.8% three-point (34.7% in conference play). Johnson averaged 11.3 points and 2.9 assists per game, leading the Golden Griffins in both categories. Johnson signed a professional contract in August 2025 with GET United of the BNXT League in the Netherlands.

A 10-year veteran of the coaching industry, Walton joined Tiffany Swoffard's staff after spending the previous three seasons on staff at Bethune-Cookman. There, he played a role in leading the Wildcats to three consecutive seasons of improved wins, including a 15-win campaign in 2023-24. Walton oversaw point guard development at Bethune-Cookman, and under his guidance, Chanel Wilson earned 2022-23 All-SWAC First Team honors, was named the SWAC Newcomer of the Year and was voted to the 2022-23 HBCU All-America team. In addition to his responsibility as Bethune-Cookman's offensive coordinator, Walton assisted with scouting reports, oversaw the team's community service efforts, and was the program's liaison with Bethune-Cookman's alumni relations, equipment and facilities departments.

Before his time at Bethune-Cookman, Walton spent the 2020-21 campaign on staff at Kennesaw State. In his time with the Owls, Walton assisted with all program aspects, including oversight of recruiting efforts for junior college and transfer-portal prospects. He developed and mentored multiple players, including Amani Johnson, an ASUN all-conference selection who went on to set the Kennesaw State career scoring and assists records.

Prior to joining the Kennesaw State staff, Walton was an assistant coach for the Southwest DeKalb High School girl's basketball team, where he worked under his mother Kathleen Richey-Walton. Stephan assisted with all coaching activities, including opponent scouting, team video and aiding in the development of the team's post players. Walton served five years as an assistant to Julia Huddleston-Tucker at Lynn University from 2015-20, where he took on roles in administration, budgeting, fundraising, public relations, and coaching within the Division II program. While on staff Lynn, Walton developed multiple all-league players.

As a player, Walton started his collegiate career at Valdosta State, where he earned Gulf South All-Tournament Team honors in 2008. A native of Decatur, Ga., Walton went on to play and serve as team captain at the University of Manitoba.