Blinn College athletic director and men’s basketball coach Scott Schumacher has been selected to participate in the inaugural TopConnect NJCAA symposium on Thursday, Oct. 8th, and Friday, Oct. 9th. The inaugural class has 30 head men’s basketball coaches and 11 head women’s basketball coaches participating in this prestigious event.
TopConnect (formerly Villa 7) originated in 2003 by then Virginia Commonwealth University Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, identifies the top basketball assistant coaches in the country and connects them with mid-major athletic directors, providing tremendous networking opportunities for both parties. Following the recent success of TopConnect Basketball 2020, NJCAA President & CEO Dr. Christopher Parker and Sander began to develop a program for the head men’s and women’s basketball coaches of the NJCAA that allows top coaches to hear from a wide variety of successful leaders.
“I am extremely humbled to have been chosen in the first class of junior college coaches for TopConnect,” Schumacher said. “It is an opportunity for me to continue to grow and learn from some of the top NCAA Division I coaches, who have coached at the junior college level, and administrators in college basketball today.”
Schumacher has 31 years of experience as a two-year college head coach and has compiled a career record of 583-347. He is ranked 14th in all-time wins among active men’s basketball coaches across 439 NJCAA programs. He has led three different junior college programs to a conference championship and a top-10 national ranking in the NJCAA polls. In five of the last six seasons, Schumacher has led the Blinn Buccaneers to 20 or more wins.
The presenters for the inaugural TopConnect NJCAA include former junior college coaches Buzz Williams (now Texas A&M), Steve Forbes (now Wake Forest), Brian “Penny” Collins (now Tennessee State), Jay Ladner (now Southern Miss), Dr. Brittney Ezell (now East Tennessee State), Chris Jans (now New Mexico State), Keitha Adams (now Wichita State), Ryan Ridder (now Bethune-Cookman) and Chanda Rigby (now Troy). In addition, a panel of Division I athletic directors will discuss their expectations of a coaching staff, and a panel of current Division I assistant coaches will share their thoughts on their transition from junior college to their current roles.
In total, three panels of current Division I head coaches will speak of their experiences on maintaining success once hired at the Division 1 level, making the jump to Division I from junior college, and overall career development. Parker and JUCOAdvocate CEO Brandon Goble will hold a conversation on breaking the stigma of junior college.
Since the inception of Villa 7 (now TopConnect), the program has produced numerous Division I head coaches, including Anthony Grant (Dayton), Williams (Texas A&M), Shaka Smart (Texas), Forbes (Wake Forest), and recently Greg Gary (Mercer), Brett Nelson (Holy Cross) and Bryan Mullins (Southern Illinois).
TopConnect works in conjunction with East Tennessee State University’s Doctoral Program in Global Sport Leadership and is a subsidiary of Connected Media, LLC. For more information, visit http://topconnectleaders.com/njcaa.html.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 41 NJCAA national championships since 1987. For more information, visit www.buccaneersports.com.