Precious Ivy

ATHENS — Precious Ivy, a former Tyler Junior College assistant, has officially been named women’s basketball head coach at Trinity Valley Community College, the college announced on Thursday.

Ivy, who served as interim head coach since early January upon the resignation of Gerald Ewing, becomes the 11th head coach in the 45-year history of the Lady Cardinals.

In her 17 games as interim head coach, Ivy led the Lady Cards to a 17-0 record and the Region XIV Conference regular season and Region XIV Tournament championships. Ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA poll the final weeks of the regular season, TVCC was the No. 1 seed going into the national tournament, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are very excited to make it official that Coach Ivy will be leading our program moving forward,” said Jay Kinzer, Ph.D., vice president of student services and athletic director. “She did a tremendous job handling the pressures that come with the job when she had to unexpectedly take over.

“We were fortunate to have already had one of the nation’s best young coaches on campus and are confident she will continue the storied success of the Lady Cards.”

Ivy is in her first year at the college, having served previous stints as an assistant coach at Houston Baptist University and TJC.

She joined the Lady Cardinals program after a two-year stint as an assistant coach at Houston Baptist.

At HBU, Ivy was the recruiting coordinator and assisted with player development and academics. She also focused on personnel on opposing teams and developed scouting reports.

At TJC, she was in charge of recruiting, scouting, strength training, player skill development, academics and the redshirt program under head coach Trenia Tillis Hoard. She helped lead the Apache Ladies to a 118-47 record, three national tournament appearances and a top-25 ranking for four straight years.

The Cedar Hill native played two seasons at San Jacinto College-North, earning all-conference honorable mention in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Back injuries cut her career short and jump-started her foray into coaching. She served as a volunteer student assistant at San Jacinto.

She then spent one season at Wayland Baptist University as a graduate assistant, serving as the head coach of the junior varsity program, as well as overseeing player development and academics.

Ivy holds a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from the University of Houston and a Master of Arts in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia University Irvine.