Larry Vickers attracts from HBCU experience as Auburn’s brand-new women’s basketball trainer
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When Auburn head women’s basketball trainer Larry Vickers made the jump in March from mid-major program Norfolk State, he recognized the years he had actually spent at the traditionally Black Virginia university would certainly help him throughout his adhering to stage.
Over 10 periods at Norfolk State, Vickers changed the Spartans right into a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) realm, leading the program to 3 succeeding NCAA competition looks and constructing a total document of 177 – 99 Now, Vickers is developed to reveal the winning formula he curated at an HBCU runs in the SEC, among one of the most affordable seminar in women’s college basketball.
Vickers is the first HBCU girls’s basketball head trainer to jump straight to the Power 4 level considering that 2013, when Texas Southern trainer Cynthia Cooper-Dyke took the helm at USC.
” People have certain point of views on our organization [the MEAC] and where we need to have the ability to train next off, like, they want you to relocate from the MEAC to the A- 10 [Atlantic 10] They desire you to move from the MEAC to the CAA [Coastal Athletic Association],” Vickers specified. “And it appears like, ‘Hold up, we ain’t lose to a CAA group in, I do not acknowledge, 5 years.’
” So when you get a chance such as this, it’s really few, you understand, now, four power seminars. I could have remained at Norfolk one more 10 years and never got one more possibility to trainer in the SEC.”
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Vickers’ success at Norfolk State taped the focus of his existing employer, Auburn sporting activities manager John Cohen, long prior to he was officially used.
In December 2023, Vickers’ Norfolk State Spartans played Auburn for the very first time in his career, dropping 67 – 39 In December 2024, Norfolk State managed Auburn once more, carrying out a 63 – 57 shocked triumph.
Cohen continued to be in the represent that computer game, viewing as Vickers and Norfolk State handed Auburn its really initial home loss of the 2024 – 25 duration.
” Our president, Dr. [Christopher] Roberts, was at that video game. My current manager, John Cohen, went to that video game. … They liked our design of play. They suched as the intensity that our interplay with. They liked exactly how we executed on both ends of the flooring,” Vickers asserted.
When the Tigers had a head mentoring task after firing instructor Johnnie Harris in March, Vickers situated himself on their radar.
” They were like, ‘Hey, this individual with [few] resources might do this. What can you perform with a program in the SEC?'”
Vickers, an alum of the Norfolk State men’s basketball program, started his mentoring task in 2008 as an assistant prior to transitioning to associate head instructor (2013 -16
” That program type of constructed me and made me that I am,” Vickers claimed.
In 2016, he happened the head girls’s basketball train and changed the fighting program right into a giant, inevitably leading the Spartans to 3 successive MEAC competitors titles. The three-time MEAC Coach of the Year likewise helped establish gamers such as 2025 MEAC Gamer of the Year Diamond Johnson and Sixth Player of theYear Anjanae Richardson
” Norfolk is an HBCU naturally, however at the very same time, I believe both programs at this stage are acknowledged extra as formidable mid-major programs,” Norfolk State head individuals’s basketball train Robert Jones asserted.”Him elevating Norfolk to a mid-major condition simply beyond HBCU, by tradition, is going to make the jump easier for everybody. He understands the game of basketball, so the mentoring is not mosting likely to be an issue.”
When Vickers began disturbing Power Four teams with the Spartans, the opportunity of leading one appeared far more within.
” I wanted to be there [at Norfolk] 45, 50 years, like [former Norfolk State baseball coach and athletic director] Marty Miller. That was my goal. … I think we accomplished a ton,” Vickers specified.”Norfolk’s an unique place. You understand, a lot of institutions preach family, and they really mean it.”
Despite the life the Vickers developed for himself at Norfolk State, the Auburn mentoring job was something he can not hand down.
” Everybody sort of understood the choice. … They didn’t attempt and persuade me to remain,” Vickers claimed.”They resemble, ‘This is a great chance for you, you know, to show the nation just how good of a coach you are.'”
When Vickers acquired Auburn’s program, practically the entire team remained in the transfer website. Just 2 gamers, student guard Syriah Daniels and redshirt junior guard Kaitlyn Duhon, picked to remain. Vickers spent the offseason bring back the program, including its training employees.
Among his brand-new hires was Candice Jackson, a previous assistant fitness instructor atVirginia Republic College Jackson and Vickers have actually been buddies for practically a years, considered that he began training women’s basketball, she asserted.
” When he obtained this possibility, he asked if I would certainly want coming and aiding in some sort of capability. And I claimed, ‘Yeah,'” Jackson specified.”I wouldn’t concern Auburn for a whole lot of people. I claim that since absolutely nothing versus Auburn, however I was just really delighted and really settled in Richmond.”
Jackson relocated 10 hours far from Richmond, Virginia, to sign up with Vickers at Auburn, she asserted, mostly as an outcome of his one-of-a-kind training layout.
” He was a design significant so, you understand, designers simply naturally think in a different way. The way that he has the ability to teach that in a basketball viewpoint, it’s constantly been intriguing,” Jackson specified. “Engineers sort of take things apart initial and area points back with each other to guarantee that it makes good sense, therefore that’s the way in which he enlightens basketball.
” I think our players have actually learned so much more considering that they’ve been below in this short amount of time. So seeing that with his team at Norfolk for all those years and afterwards being able to come and aid him do it here has been really, really enjoyable.”
Auburn (10 – 3 generally) opened its duration onNov 3 with a 71- 58 overtime win versus Charlotte and head trainTomekia Reed Reed took control of at Charlotte in April 2024 after investing 6 years as head females’s basketball fitness instructor at Jackson State, where she led the program to 5 successive Southwestern Athletic Seminar (SWAC) regular-season titles and 3 SWAC competitors titles.
The Vickers-Reed competition showcased 2 previous HBCU trains that continue to be to go up the positions of university basketball.
” We had to play 5 quarters versus an extremely well-coached UNC Charlotte group. Tomekia [did] a fantastic task at Jackson State and everything that she’s done, the amount of championships that she’s won, the amount of champions that [Vickers] won– they both obtain it,” Jackson claimed.”It doesn’t always matter what organization or what degree you’re coaching at, winning is winning.”
Vickers and the Tigers will certainly play their first seminar challenger of the duration, Mississippi State, onJan 1 He recognizes the challenges that included being a first-year SEC fitness instructor yet means to increase the change treatment and distress some teams early. While his primary focus gets on Auburn girls’s basketball, he remains to praise for his Norfolk State Spartans house.” I invested 22 years in environment-friendly and gold,” Vickers claimed.” I’m thrilled to have this blue and orange on. Yet you recognize, I’m complying with everything they [the Spartans] do on social media sites, and I’ll absolutely be turning up to a great deal of things this year. ” Cayla Sweazie is a ladies’s and college sporting activities press reporter. She is a previous HBCU professional athlete (Go Bears
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