U of L men’s basketball coach CEBL Coach of the Year
By Woodard, Dale on August 28, 2020.
Lethbridge Herald
Before he heads into his first year as the head coach of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team, Jermaine Small picked up a national award.
Small, the head coach and general manager of the 2020 Canadian Elite Basketball League champion Edmonton Stingers, was named the 2020 CEBL Coach of the Year Tuesday.
He was selected in a vote cast by CEBL coaches, general managers and media covering the CEBL Summer Series.
Small led the Stingers to earn the top seed of the CEBL Summer Series following the round-robin portion of the competition with a record of 5-1.
That gave them a bye into the semifinals where they beat the Ottawa BlackJacks before the Stingers defeated the Fraser Valley Bandits in the championship final Aug. 9, to finish the Summer Series on a seven-game win streak.
Small is the winningest head coach in CEBL history with a 17-4 record with the Stingers.
After taking over as Edmonton’s head coach midway through the 2019 inaugural CEBL season, he won nine straight games, a CEBL record for a team’s longest win streak.
Small will receive a custom-designed ring courtesy of CEBL’s award partner, Jostens, for earning Coach of the Year honours.
The CEBL Summer Series tipped off July 25 and became the first professional sports league in Canada to return to play since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in mid-March shut down sports across the country.
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