Men's Basketball 5/21/2014 12:45:00 PM by Justin-Mycal White

Panthers Add Lonnie Williams as Associate Head Coach

Newly appointed Head Men's Basketball Coach Tony Sheals has added Lonnie Williams to his coaching staff as the Associate Head Coach.

With over 27 years of collegiate coaching and recruiting experience, Williams adds a dimension to the men's basketball team that will look to improve the Panthers, both on and off the court.

"You want somebody that brings a multifacet of experience on and off the court." Coach Sheals explains. "He has built and developed programs, and although we've never worked together, we've maintained a relationship for over twenty-five years."

With over 230 career wins as a head coach, the New York City native brings the winning attitude back to Panther basketball.

Coach Williams started his colligate career playing at Sheridan College (Wyoming) before transferring to the University of Montana-Northern in 1978 and finished at Eastern Washington.

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Eastern Washington University in 1980, he continued on to receive his Master's in Physical Education from the University of Idaho in 1982.

Williams was appointed his first Head Coaching job in 1986 at the South Florida Community College, where he led the team to a 25-5 overall record, which remains statistically one of the best years in the team's history. South Florida Community College led the nation in scoring with 104.1 points per game, and went on to win the conference championship. South Florida Community College ended their season ranked second in the Florida Junior College Poll and 16^th in the Nation. In addition, still in his first year, Coach Williams was named Coach of The Year for the Sun Coast Conference.

Based on such an outstanding inaugural year, Coach Williams was invited by Florida Atlantic University to construct a program from scratch. Florida Atlantic played their first intercollegiate basketball game ever under Coach Williams in 1988 and put together an impressive 49 point victory over Palm Beach Atlantic University with a final score of 111–62.

Following his tenure at Florida Atlantic Williams took a head coaching job at the University of California-Davis, and an assistant coach and recruiting co-ordinator at North Carolina A&T, before heading to the Historic Tuskegee University as head coach of the Golden Tigers. While at Tuskegee Coach Williams developed an All-American, three All-Conference, and six All-SIAC players while leading the team to a 18-8. The 1993-1994 season under Coach Williams was one of the school's best in history, taking pride in defeating the Nations number 2 and number 6 ranked teams in Division II.

Other stops along the way include being head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shores, and assistant coach at Florida International, before pairing a position as Athletic Director and Head Men's Basketball Coach at Knoxville College, in Knoxville Tennessee.

After leaving Knoxville College, Williams went on to Connecticut as the associate head coach at University of Hartford, before landing at Tennessee State as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.

Coach Williams looks to be a compliment to Coach Sheals as they prepare to contend for the CIAA Championship this coming season. "The timing was right to get together" said Williams, "I'm blessed that he's given me this opportunity, we've talked about it for years and now it's time to put both heads together and make this thing work."

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