|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Royce Samuels is in his second season as an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University. Samuels is responsible for recruiting, scouting, conditioning programs and practice plans on Head Coach Misti Cussen’s staff, and he played a key role as the Golden Eagles won the SLC Championship in 2013. Samuels was instrumental as ORU brought in a nine-player recruting class for the 2013-14 season, a group that is sure to reshape the Golden Eagle program for years to come. The coaching veteran also helped to improve ORU’s post efforts in his first season on the sidelines, helping a group that struggled prior to his arrival finish first in the SLC in blocked shots and in the upper half of the league in rebounding margin. Samuels came to ORU from the University of Detroit-Mercy, where he was an assistant coach for the 2010-11 season. While at Detroit, Samuels was a key cog in a team that posted 13 wins, including a 19-point victory over Big Ten Conference program Michigan. A strong teacher with a knack for player development, Samuels guided many of Detroit’s top talents during his lone season with the Titan program, including Horizon League award recipients Dominique Dixon and Yar Shayok. A longtime youth coach in the Amateur Athletic Union ranks, Samuels has tallied 18 years of experience at the AAU level. Most recently, Samuels was the head coach of Team Wisconsin, where he coached current University of Oklahoma standout Courtney Griffin. Samuels also has collegiate coaching experience with the men’s basketball programs at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Olivet (Mich.) College, where he was a chief recruiter and in charge of the program’s offseason training schedules. Samuels helped Wisconsin-Stout to a 14-11 season and a winning conference record for the 2002-03 season. During Samuels’ tenure at Olivet, the Comets posted two seasons of double-digit victories and produced five players who earned All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors. Samuels has also served at a number of high school stops, including Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and El Reno High School in El Reno, Okla. Samuels is a native of El Reno and graduated from Wisconsin’s Mount Senario College in 1992 with degrees in Criminal Justice and Special Education, and he has spent several years working in special education programs at several different schools. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
