Lennox Forrester is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach and the former men's head coach at

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...

(SIUE). He was an assistant coach at his alma mater, the

University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton College, in Grantham, England. UE offers more than 80 differ ...

after being fired by SIUE. He currently serves as the Executive Director at the Downtown Belleville YMCA in

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The p ...

Biography

A native of

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

, Forrester transferred to the

after graduating from Parkland (IL) College, where he was a

National Junior College Athletic Association The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

Division II All-American in 1989. Leg injuries prevented Forrester from joining the Purple Aces as a player. Instead, he remained with the program as a student assistant and earned a bachelor of arts degree in sociology in 1992. Forrester and his wife, domestic and internationally acclaimed Dr. Racquel Forrester, have a daughter, Calaya, and movie and playwright director, son Drew of TFL Media. works at gateway regional ymca downtown Belleville Illinois center go gwrymca.org and click on locations then go to the Downtown Belleville center location truth

Coaching career

After graduating from Evansville, Forrester spent 10 seasons (1992–2002) as an assistant coach and administrative assistant for the school under coach

Jim Crews James S. Crews (born February 14, 1954) is an American former men's college basketball coach for Saint Louis University. He was promoted to head coach after serving on an interim basis following the health concerns and eventual death of former Bil ...

. He then served five seasons as an assistant coach to

Jim Les James Alan Les (born August 18, 1963) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the UC Davis Aggies men's team. A former point guard, Les played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) after his ...

Bradley University Bradley University is a private university in Peoria, Illinois. Founded in 1897, Bradley University enrolls 5,400 students who are pursuing degrees in more than 100 undergraduate programs and more than 30 graduate programs in five colleges. The ...

, before being named as the seventh coach of the

SIU Edwardsville Cougars The SIU Edwardsville Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), located in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States. The Cougars' athletic program is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference ( ...

. During Forrester's first year as coach, SIUE was a member of the Division II

Great Lakes Valley Conference The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions a ...

. In his second season, the school began a five-year transition to Division I. SIUE joined the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...

in 2008 and played its first full conference schedule in the 2011–12 season but was not eligible for post-season competition until 2012–13. On May 4, 2012, it was announced that, in light of the program's steady progress, SIUE had extended Forrester's contract for an additional three years. On March 10, 2015, it was announced that Forrester and his entire staff would not be retained because, according to SIUE Athletic Director Dr. Brad Hewitt, "... our won-loss record and program support are not where we believe it should be." In eight seasons, Forrester's record was 82–146.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrester, Lennox 1969 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Illinois Bradley Braves men's basketball coaches Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Parkland College alumni SIU Edwardsville Cougars men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Evanston, Illinois