Randy Bolden (born ) 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 ...

head coach for

Mississippi College Mississippi College (MC) is a private Baptist university in Clinton, Mississippi. Founded in 1826, MC is the second-oldest Baptist-affiliated college or university in the United States and the oldest college or university in Mississippi. Histor ...

. He took over in April 2021, with previous head coaching experience at the high school and junior college levels.

Playing career

College

Bolden's collegiate career was at

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

between

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. A

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

, Bolden was twice named the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Player of the Year, first as a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

and again as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

. He was born in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

and attended

Forest Hill High School Forest Hill High School is a public high school located in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It serves students from grades 9 12, and is part of the Jackson Public School District. The current principal is Torrey Hampton. Demographics A tota ...

prior to enrolling at Texas Southern. In Bolden's four years at Texas Southern, he scored approximately 2,000 points and finished in the national top 10 in scoring on two occasions. He was the SWAC Freshman of the Year in 1994–95, and during the 1995 NCAA Tournament he helped the 15th-seeded Tigers nearly upset 2nd-seeded

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, the defending national champions (Arkansas won, 79–78). For his first two seasons, Bolden was a teammate of

Kevin Granger Kevin Granger (born December 30, 1973) is a retired American professional basketball player who is best known for leading NCAA Division I in scoring with a 27.0 points per game average in 1995–96. Granger grew up in Scooba, Mississi ...

, the national scoring leader in 1995–96. For his final two years he earned All-SWAC honors and was twice named the conference player of the year.

Professional

After his time at Texas Southern ended, Bolden played professionally for teams in Brazil, Iceland, and Canada. In August 1999, Bolden signed with

Grindavík Grindavík () is a fishing town on the Southern Peninsula (Iceland), Southern Peninsula of Iceland not far from the tuya Þorbjörn (mountain), Þorbjörn. It is one of the few cities with a harbour on this coast. Most of the inhabitants work in ...

. On August 29, he scored 29 points in a tournament deciding victory against

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarðv ...

in an unofficial pre-season tournament which included all the Úrvalsdeild karla teams. On September 23, Bolden was released by the club before the start of the 1999–2000 Úrvalsdeild season.

Coaching career

High school

After Bolden retired from playing in 2002, he became an assistant boys' basketball coach for two years at

Provine High School John W. Provine High School is a public school in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Jackson Public School District. Nicknamed "Ram City", the school serves students in grades 9–12 in the West Jackson area. Students from the ...

. Then, for the next 12 seasons, he served at head coach for Pearl High School (2004–07) and Meridian High School (2007–16). While at Meridian, Bolden guided the Wildcats to a combined 227–55 record, 2011 MHSAA 6A State Championship (29–2 overall) and back-to-back south state crowns in 2010 and 2011. He also served as the North/South All-Star Game head coach during the record 2011 season.

Junior college

In 2016, Bolden jumped into junior college coaching, spending one season as an assistant coach for

Hinds Community College Hinds Community College is a public community college with its main campus in Raymond, Mississippi and branches in Jackson and Vicksburg. The Hinds Community College District includes Hinds County, Claiborne County, part of Copiah County, Ran ...

Raymond, Mississippi Raymond is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,933; in 2020, its population was 1,960. Raymond is one of two county seats of Hinds County (along with Jackson) and is the home of the ...

. He got his first junior college head coaching opportunity at

Jones County Junior College Jones College is a public community college in Ellisville, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and serves its eight-county district consisting of Clarke, Covington, Gree ...

where he spent four seasons (2017–21); he guided the Bobcats to a 59–31 overall record (including back-to-back 20-win seasons), a South Division championship, and a conference runner-up finish in 2018–19. The Bobcats also finished as NJCAA Region 23 runners-up in 2019–20. In his first three years at Jones, 17 players signed to play at the four-year level. On April 8, 2021, Bolden took over

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

program

, becoming the first

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

head coach in school history. He succeeded Mike Jones, who resigned after two seasons leading the Choctaws.

References

# # # # # {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolden, Randy Date of birth missing (living people) 1970s births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Brazil American expatriate basketball people in Canada American expatriate basketball people in Iceland American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Mississippi Basketball players from Jackson, Mississippi Grindavík men's basketball players High school basketball coaches in Mississippi Hinds Eagles men's basketball coaches Jackson State University alumni Jones County Bobcats men's basketball coaches Mississippi College Choctaws men's basketball coaches Point guards Sportspeople from Jackson, Mississippi Texas Southern Tigers men's basketball players