Men’s Basketball Team Selects New Head Coach
Moving On Up: Kevin Ledoux, who served as an assistant coach on the Miami Dade College men’s basketball team for the last three years, was promoted to head coach in September.
The Miami Dade College men’s basketball team has a new head coach after Kevin Ledoux, who served as an assistant on the team for the past three years, was selected to lead the Sharks.
Ledoux, 46, was promoted in late September.
The college had been searching for someone to take the reigns of the men’s basketball program since the summer, after the previous head coach, Stephen Cowherd, accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
“It was kind of numbing. I was ecstatic,” said Ledoux, who also worked as a national sales representative for a manufacturing company in the southeast area for the past 20 years.“This is something that I’ve always wanted to be: a head coach.To get this opportunity is a thrill for me, and it’s exciting.”
Ledoux has won at every stop he has made.
He played high school basketball at Nashua High School in New Hampshire, where he led his team to a Class L State Championship as a sophomore. In his senior year, he was awarded Team MVP.
After high school, Ledoux spent some time at a preparatory school, Maine Central Institute. The prep school’s team went 20-1 that year in the regular season and was named New England Champions.
Ledoux transferred to Chipola College and played under legendary head coach Milton Johnson. At Chipola, Ledoux was part of a squad that won the regular season Panhandle Conference Championship. The team was ranked sixth nationally and number one in the state of Florida.
He later played at Life College (now Life University) and was part of the school’s inaugural basketball team. They went 28-5 in their inaugural season and won their conference championship.
Ledoux’s final stop in his playing career was at the University of North Alabama, where he won a conference championship and made an appearance in the NCAA Division II National Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen.
“I’m sure I was one of the first phone calls he made when he was named the coach at Miami Dade,” said Nikita Johnson, who was an assistant at Chipola College when Ledoux played there. Johnson is now an assistant at Stetson University. “I’m very excited for Kevin, what a great opportunity.”
The promotion allows the team to keep some stability. Marko Krivicevic, Patrick Pauwels and Victor Sanchez are returning players from last year’s team. They look forward to continue working with Ledoux.
“He has taught me a lot of things, so it was good news to me,” Sanchez said of Ledoux’s promotion. “[We’ve known each other for three years]. I know what he expects from me.”
Ledoux said he feels prepared for the challenge of leading the Sharks after working under Cowherd for the past three years.
“He gave me an opportunity, and I ran with it,” Ledoux said. “I was basically out of basketball for 20 plus years. The experience from the past three years has been instrumental to me becoming the coach that I am right now.”
