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After six years at Lavietes, Christian Webster ’13 is moving on.

The University of Central Florida announced Monday that it had hired the former assistant coach of the Harvard men’s basketball team to the same position. Webster will join UCF coach Donnie Jones, who is looking to build up a program that finished near the bottom of the American Athletic Conference in 2015 with a 12-18 overall record.

“It was a great opportunity for me to not just get away from Harvard but keep growing,” Webster said. “They were looking for someone young, that could recruit, and that could bring energy to the program. I felt like I fit that mold pretty well.”

During Webster’s six years at Harvard, the Crimson qualified for the NCAA tournament four times and twice won opening round games. In his final season in uniform, Webster was the sole senior on a squad that lost Brandyn Curry ’13-’14 and Kyle Casey ’13-’14 early in the season but won 20 games and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Webster will hope to bring that same attitude to a Knights program that has not made the NCAA tournament since 2005. Under Jones, the Knights have finished 88-70 over five seasons—never finishing higher than third in conference play and making the NIT just once.

“One of the things that I talked about with Coach Jones is bringing the energy,” Webster said. “That’s something that [Harvard] coach [Tommy] Amaker has always talked about, even when I was a player.”

The choice to leave Harvard was not an easy one for Amaker’s protege. Leaving his mentor, a man that he called his “dad away from home for six years,” was difficult, Webster said.

Ultimately, Amaker encouraged his former player to take the opportunity presented to him and, like many before him, take steps outside the Harvard bubble.

“He is really happy for me to [have] a great opportunity to grow and get out of my comfort zone at Harvard,” Webster said. “It [is] a great opportunity to be an assistant coach in the American Athletic Conference.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.