Trinity Valley Community College head women’s basketball coach Elena Lovato was named the NJCAA Division I Coach of the Year today.
Carrying on the winning tradition of Trinity Valley women’s basketball, Lovato has established a new era in the program’s history in only her second season. After guiding the Cardinals to a national championship in her first year at the helm, Lovato repeated the feat this year by leading Trinity Valley to their third straight national title – a first in the history of NJCAA basketball.
Following this season’s 36-1 finish, Lovato now boasts a record of 72-2 in the past two seasons with the Cardinals and has yet to lose a game in the spring. Prior to arriving in Athens, Texas, as a head coach in 2012, Lovato was a Cardinals assistant in the 2009-10 season before being promoted to interim head coach for the final 11 games.
Following that season, Lovato earned the head coaching job at Grayson (Texas) before moving on to NCAA program Nebraska-Omaha as an assistant. She also served as an assistant at Houston and Pittsburg State following a successful career as a high school coach in Missouri and New Mexico.