The Nicholls State University men’s basketball team has added David Amata and Mike Lenzly to their coaching staff the team announced.
Amata joins the Colonels after four years working with the IMPACT Basketball Academy, while Lenzly comes to Nicholls following a 10-year professional basketball career.
A native of Rocky River, Ohio, Amata brings a wealth of experience having worked with some of the top basketball players in the country as the Director of Basketball Operations for Impact Basketball in Las Vegas, Nev. At Impact Basketball, Amata coordinated scheduling, travel and housing for the Academy as well as assisting with travel, accommodations and logistics for all other Impact clientele. He also assisted with the postgraduate program working under Academy Director Mike Moreau and coordinated all recruiting strategies and efforts for the Impact Academy. His efforts on behalf of the Academy students led to an incredible amount of placements within college basketball programs of all levels.
During his time at Impact he worked with 47 NBA Draft Picks over the past four years and 25 other NBA players. David coached 18 D1 players over the past four seasons including current Nicholls player Chad Simpson. Amata was responsible for coordinating logistics, budgeting and player relations for all NBA/Pro personnel. He also acted as recruiting coordinator for Impact Academy and managed the recruiting of all athletes during their time at Impact. Other former players include Australian Jaryd Eustace (Miami of Ohio), Devon Bookert (Florida State), Nate Pollard (Rice), Colter Lasher (Houston Baptist), and Justin Foreman (Central Arkansas).
Prior to joining Impact, Amata spent one year at Buckeye High School in Medina, Ohio as the assistant varsity coach and Head Freshman Coach. During Amata’s time at Cleveland State University he served as Head Manager/Assistant Director of Operations for the Men’s Basketball program. He assisted with all facets of the program and oversaw a staff of five managers. Amata was a part of an NIT team and an NCAA tournament team that included current Miami Heat PG Norris Cole and PG Cedric Jackson, the two-time MVP of the NBL in Australia.
Born in Oxford, Englad to American military parents, Lenzly is a dual citizen of Great Britain and the United States. Raised in Jonesboro, GA, he played high school basketball at Lovejoy, where he led the team to the class 4A State Final Four as a senior in 1999.
Lenzly attended Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC from 1999-2003, finishing with 1,333 career points in 116 games. He led the team in points, rebounds and assists as a senior. He also has the only triple-double in school history with 21 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds in a 105-69 win against Chattanooga during the 2000-2001 season. He is now sixth in the record books in school history with 169 3-point field goals made and seventh in 3-point field goals attempted with 467, giving him a 36.2 career 3-point field goal percentage. A three-time All SoCon selection from 2000-2003, Lenzly was named co-most valuable player in 2003. He was inducted into the Wofford College Hall of Fame in 2008.
After graduation, Lenzly began his professional basketball career in Europe that spanned 10 years and seven different countries including Germany (TBB Trier), Latvia (BK Ventspils), Spain (Tenerife Baloncesto), Cyprus (Apoel), Belgium (Dexia Mons), Italy (Givova Scafati) and Czech Republic (Cez Nymburk). He also played for Great Britain’s Senior Men’s national team in the summers of 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. During his professional career, Lenzly was named to the FIBA EuroCup All-Star game in 2008, participated in the European Championship in the summers of 2009 and 2011, earned a Nike Uk Contract and played in the 2012 London Olympic Games. He won four domestic championships in 10 years. His first championship came in Lativa (2005) and the other three in the Czech Republic (2010, 2011 and 2012). Lenzly finished his pro career in Germany for Wurzburg in May of 2013.
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