By Matthew Hatfield

Special to the News-Herald

Lamont Strothers will not be returning as the head boys’ basketball coach at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy for the 2017-18 campaign.

Strothers hopes to devote more time to his family and watching his daughter, Adria, play basketball at Hampton University.

“The decision is always difficult, but it’s an easy decision when it comes to your family and doing things you have to do,” Strothers said.

“There has been a whole lot going on with my kids and me. I have two young boys that I have to help focus on them, plus I missed a lot of my daughter’s games at HU this year.”

“I told them I would be willing to come back and coach as an assistant to help someone, but doing it full time is just too much of a grind for me right now,” he added. “I enjoyed what I did there, enjoyed the kids and I’m going to miss them because you become attached to the kids.”

In two seasons at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, Strothers led the Saints to a 20-26 overall record, which saw progress. The Saints went from 8-15 his first year to 12-11 this past season with just one senior, Shaun Faulk, on the roster.

They had four eighth graders on the varsity team, one of which was Strothers’ son, Allen, who averaged 12 points per game.

“We appreciate Coach Strothers’ dedication to our boys’ basketball program, and we wish him all the best moving forward,” Nansemond-Suffolk Academy Director of Athletics T.W. Johnson Jr. stated.

“We are currently in the process of interviewing several highly qualified candidates and look forward to sharing that information once a new coach has been selected.”

Strothers, 49, played high school basketball at Forest Glen. From there, he went on to become a Division III All-American at Christopher Newport University. His 2,709 points scored were more than anyone else in CNU history and third most in Division III history at the time that he concluded his college career.

In 1991, Strothers was selected in the second round, 43rd overall, of the NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. He was subsequently traded to the Portland Trail Blazers and spent parts of two seasons there, as well as with the Dallas Mavericks, amassing a career record of 4.6 points per game in a total of 13 contests in the NBA.

For most of his professional career, Strothers played overseas and enjoyed considerable success in the Philippines. In fact, he scored more than 3,900 points in the Philippines Basketball Association.

Prior to coming to NSA, Strothers was a head boys’ basketball coach in the Peninsula District, first at Bethel High School in Hampton and then at Warwick High School in Newport News.

At Bethel, he led the Bruins to a record of 15-8 overall, 11-7 against Peninsula District foes in 2006-07. Warwick went from 1-20 overall his first season to 8-15 overall the next year during the 2012-13 campaign.

Between his coaching stints at Bethel and Warwick, Strothers served as an assistant coach to Carolyn Hunter with the CNU women’s basketball program that made a run to the Final Four.

For the time being, Strothers still plans to be involved with coaching basketball, just in a lesser capacity. Currently, he coaches with two Amateur Athletic Union travel teams — his VAHard2Guard organization, as well as with the Boo Williams 16-Under program.

“We just came back from Peach Jam, and my son plays on that [Boo Williams 16U] team,” Strothers noted. “As far as coaching, I’ll help somewhere. But it’ll be in an assistant role, not as a head [coach].”