Levy is new basketball coach
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Even during his year away from coaching college basketball, Howard Levy never strayed too far from coaching the game.
”Last year I was coaching my son and my daughter a little bit,” said the former Princeton University assistant coach, who on Monday was named the new head coach at Mercer County Community College.
”I realized what I missed and what I didn’t miss about coaching at that level. I really missed the on the court coaching part. I thought about what would be a good fit for me and on my own I had thought that Mercer would be a good fit. Then John (Simone, the MCCC athletic director) called me when it looked like Kelly Williams would get the TCNJ job and asked if I would be interested in the job at Mercer. It’s a good fit in terms of the time commitment and crazy life I have. I like the mission of the school.”
Levy spent 11 seasons as an assistant at Princeton, working under Bill Carmody, John Thompson and Joe Scott. He was also part of the coaching staff at Trenton State College (now TCNJ) and George Washington. He earned his law degree while coaching at GW. After a year away from college coaching, he’s happy to be back with the Vikings.
”You find that you miss the basketball part,” said Levy, a PU graduate and Princeton resident who is the president and cofounder of Hypnotic Hats, Inc. “Being in there and coaching at practice. It doesn’t really matter what level it is. You coach the way you coach. I like the idea that we’ll get some talented players and you can teach them a lot. I want them to be successful in the classroom and on the court. Hopefully they can have success and get into a four-year school. I feel like we have a chance to make a difference.”
Levy knows he won’t be working with the same type of players at MCCC as he did at Princeton. But he also knows that basketball is basketball and he’s looking forward to working with his new players.
”A lot of it is referrals and there are a lot of local kids,” said Levy, who played for a pair of Ivy League championship teams while he was at Princeton and coached four other Ivy title teams. “There are no dorms so you get a lot of the local high school kids. Occasionally, someone from another area might rent an apartment or have an uncle who lives in Princeton and they’d be interested. There is a good base of local players and hopefully we’ll get lucky with some kids.
”It seems like a good athletic program. When you meet John Simone and the other people, they really care about the kids. They want to do what is best for the kids.”
Having lived in Mercer County for more than a decade, Levy is familiar with the area and hopes to develop even stronger ties with the local coaching community.
”I’ll keep my eyes open during the year,” said Levy, who in 2005 coached the United States team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. “We’re able to start practice October 1 and the high school kids don’t start until Thanksgiving. So we plan to open our practices to the local coaches and let them see what we’re doing. Hopefully they’ll like what they see.
”I’m excited about the opportunity. We’ll start working guys out next week and then start with practice on October 1.”
And along the way, he’ll hopefully still have some time to keep working on the basic skills of the game with his own children.