West Los Angeles College welcomes Anthony Jones its new men’s basketball coach.
Mr. Jones brings more than 20 years of experience to West. He has coached basketball on a variety of levels, high school, travel, AAU, professional, community college and university.
Most recently, Mr. Jones spent six years as an assistant coach at Cal State San Bernardino, half of that time as head assistant coach.
He helped lead the Coyotes to post-season play in each of the seasons he was on staff. During his tenure, San Bernardino won multiple conference titles and produced three NABC all-Americans.
Co-founder of North Riverside Slam ‘n Jam, Mr. Jones is the nephew of legendary coach Al Hunter. This program began as a spring/summer developmental league and grew into one of the largest travel organizations in the state.
Through their mentorship, numerous players moved on to play college athletics, became professional athletes and some moved onto coaching. Professionally, Mr. Jones has been a personal trainer for NBA players. He spent 2000 and 2001 training members of the Atlanta Hawks.
Mr. Jones’s other experience includes having been associate head coach at Riverside City College where he was in charge of defense, recruiting and scouting. The Tigers also competed in post-season play each year with was on staff. Many of the student-athletes went on to compete at the four-year level in addition to the players who advanced to play professionally overseas.
Earlier Mr. Jones took on the challenge of opening a new high school as the boys basketball coach. At Vista del Lago High School, the Ravens won back-to-back-to-back league titles which included playoff appearances. Mr. Jones was named Coach of the Year two times. He also was the assistant athletics director.
“I have had the opportunity to see him work first-hand, and I know his entire focus is on the development of young men and assisting them in preparing for life,” said Athletic Director, Dr. Ricardo Hooper. “We will win, we will do it right, and we will move our young people on to be productive in their future endeavors.”
Mr. Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in justice studies from Arizona State where he lettered in football and was a member of a Pac-10 championship team. He earned his master’s in education from Azusa Pacific. He and wife Allissen have two boys, Jihree and Jelani.
Ms. Long-Coffee may be contacted at longcofm@wlac.edu
