By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Assistant AD for Strategic Communications
As the Centenary sports year approaches, I sat down with second-year Gents’ head basketball coach J.A. Anglin this week to discuss a variety of summer topics.
It was just over a year ago that Anglin moved across the Red River from Bossier Parish Community College to take over Gents’ basketball.
Who can we expect to see on your roster for this upcoming season?
“With 12 members of our team returning, we were able to retain most of our roster from last season. Although our group went through quite a bit of bumps and bruises throughout the season, we believe they all gained valuable experience. Ryan Spears and Me’Khai Taylor got healthy after the Christmas break. Ashton Savoie gave us great minutes after he finished the football season. They provided us more depth going into the final stages of the season.
“Jaden Braden, Kane Broussard, and Bryce Evans were thrown into the fire as true first-year players. They had to learn on the fly and by the end of the season they were playing like sophomores. Nick Addison and Dee (Dontarius) Coleman gave our team some production. They all learned what the SCAC is really about. We will be looking for all of them to provide more consistency and leadership for our incoming class.
“Donnie Haney and Jordan Williams will be joining us this season after gaining experience at the junior college level. Our staff has put together our first recruiting class and we are excited about our talented first-year players from Louisiana and Texas. We feel the recruiting class addresses our issues of depth and rebounding from last season.”
How has this summer/preseason been different than the last one?
“It has been nice to have a summer at Centenary! I am now a year and a week into the job. My assistants and I have been able to get on the road and recruit this summer in Louisiana and Texas. In terms of recruiting, we will be working ahead instead of playing catch-up.
“The day-to-day operations have been a lot smoother as well. We are not scrambling to put together games for next season. The gear for next season has been ordered. We are much more organized than we were at this point last summer.”
With time to be strategic about building your schedule, what will it do to prepare the Gents for Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference competition?
“We have put together a competitive non-conference schedule, one that we think will prepare us for conference play in the SCAC. Home and home games with Belhaven, Millsaps, and ETBU will give us a good gage of where we are as a team going into SCAC play. Belhaven is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance last season. Millsaps was very competitive after their coach’s first season there. ETBU gave us two tough games last season and we expect the same this season. The two NCAA Division I exhibition opponents, ULM and Lamar, will be great experiences for our program.”
Another summer activity is hosting camps. You’ve gotten to do that more this summer; how did it go?
“We had a great camp season on campus with the local youth. A lot of our players were able to come back to campus and work the camps. It is something we are looking forward to growing in the future.”
LOOKING AHEAD: The 2026-27 Centenary Athletics year officially begins on Tuesday, Sept. 1 as the women’s soccer team faces Belhaven in a non-conference match at Atkins Field at 6 o’clock.
Two days later, the Gents take the pitch at home to face Schreiner University at 7 o’clock. On Saturday, Sept. 5, Ladies soccer plays Louisiana Christian University at 11 a.m. at Atkins Field, and that evening the football team faces Westgate Christian University at 6 p.m. to begin its season.
Football tickets are available for purchase online now: https://fan.hudl.com/usa/la/
NO cash sales will be available. Centenary students, faculty & staff are allowed into every home event FREE with a valid Centenary ID.
See the complete 2026-27 home composite schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu