Head coach Robert Jones announced today that Jamal Brown and former Spartan player Antoine Perry have been officially hired to join the staff of the Norfolk State men’s basketball program beginning in the 2016-17 season.
Brown will serve as an assistant coach, while Perry will become the team’s new director of operations. Brown takes over the third assistant coaching position vacated when Larry Vickers became the permanent head coach for the NSU women’s team. Perry, a 2010 graduate of Norfolk State, rejoins the program after spending the past two seasons as a graduate manager with the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team.
Along with his on-court duties coaching the team, Brown will also serve as NSU’s recruiting coordinator while handling scheduling and team travel.
He arrives at Norfolk State after spending the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach at fellow MEAC school North Carolina A&T. He is well-known within the league after also serving stints as an assistant coach with South Carolina State and UMES and one year as the head coach at his alma mater S.C. State, as well.
“I am very familiar with Jamal from his many years in the league,” said Jones. “He brings a wealth of experience to the staff, and he is a tireless recruiter. We are excited to make JB a Spartan.”
“I am thrilled to work with Coach Jones and become a member of the Green and Gold family,” said Brown. “I admire the job that he and his staff have done over the three years leading the team. I look forward to being a part of a program that competes for championships every year.”
Brown spent the first six seasons of his coaching career as an assistant coach at S.C. State under former head coach Cy Alexander, helping lead the Bulldog program to MEAC titles in 1998, 2000 and ’03. Brown spent the next three seasons under Alexander at Tennessee State as the associate head coach before returning to S.C. State for one season as the head coach in 2006-07.
Brown also served as the associate head coach under Frankie Allen at UMES for five seasons from 2007-12. While there, he was selected to attend the ACE Program for Minority Coaches. He later coached for one year at Winston-Salem State in 2013-14 as an assistant before spending the 2015-16 season as an assistant under Alexander and then interim head coach Jay Joyner at N.C. A&T.
Brown graduated from S.C. State in 1997 with a degree in business marketing. He was a member of the Bulldogs’ MEAC Championship team in ’96. He is a native of North Charleston, South Carolina.
Perry will assist with certain aspects of recruiting while also handling a variety of other duties, including managing the team’s budget, film exchange and video operations, hiring and supervising the team’s managers, and assisting with compliance issues. One of Perry’s main duties will also be overseeing the strength and conditioning program for both the NSU men’s and women’s basketball teams.
“Antoine was a hard-nosed competitor, and now he brings that same hard-working attitude to our program,” said Jones, who coached Perry during his last three years at NSU from 2007-10. “Having been at the highest level of basketball in the ACC, Antoine can help enhance our staff in many different ways. He is a rising star in this business.”
“I am extremely excited and thankful for the opportunity to come aboard,” said Perry. “As a former Spartan, and alumnus, I believe that I have a vested interest in the success of this program. I look forward to doing all that I can to help us succeed here.”
Prior to the previous two seasons at Virginia Tech, Perry also spent three years as an assistant coach with Nansemand River High School in Suffolk while also working a variety of camps in the Hampton Roads area.
A native of Norfolk, Perry played for four seasons on the Spartan basketball team from 2006-10 after attending Booker T. Washington HS. He played in 77 games, including nine starts, during his four years with NSU.
He earned his degree in business management from Norfolk State in 2010.
It was also announced that Kelvin Hawkins, who has served as a volunteer director of operations with NSU the past several years, will now hold the title of special assistant to the head coach.
