ATHENS, Texas — Trinity Valley Community College introduced their new head men's basketball coach Monday at Cardinal gymnasium.
Martin Levinson will be the 12th head coach for the men's Cardinal basketball team. He will be expected to continue the basketball program's success at TVCC as the team won the Region XIV tournament and qualified for a seventh national tournament in 11 years.
"There's obviously been a lot of success here over the years," Levinson said. "They've been to seven national tournaments in the last 10 years. That tells me a lot. You can't do that if the kids aren't being loved and the kids aren't being supported."
Levinson has experience building successful basketball programs. As the head coach, Levinson build the program at the Southern Arkansas University Tech. He has a career of head coaching record of 147-98.
"I've had some battles with Kilgore, Bosier, Paris, Jacksonville, and we played Trinity Valley this year," Levinson said. "Being a division two junior college, my philosophy was always to schedule as many division one junior college as I could in the non-conference. I think we played 14 of them this year. And so I'm just excited to get on a level playing field with these division one junior colleges as far as scholarship wise and resources and see what we can do."
As a head coach, Levinson led the Rockets to a 20-5 record and seventh-place finish as the NJCAA Division 2 national tournament, in the 2020-21 season.
In the 2013-14 season, Levinson was the head coach at Central Community College where his team qualified twice for the national tournament.
“Beyond the wins and losses, the real success of a coach is the love, trust and respect that is carried on with former players and colleagues throughout a lifetime,” Levinson said. “As an educator and coach, it is my job to provide a safe and nurturing environment that facilitates growth and competition.”
Levinson received his bachelor of arts degree in education from the University of Nebraska in 2006. He then received his masters of arts in education in 2011 at the same college.
Levinson was an college basketball player starting his collegiate career at Sotheast Communit College where he was team captain for two years and all-conference.
He then continue to play for two years at the University of Nebraska where he was also was the team captain and earned all-conference honors.
Levinson will begin his new coaching role for the Cardinal basketball team on April 17. A press conference will be held Monday to announce Levinson.