The Trinity Valley Cardinals are headed to the NJCAA Tournament for the seventh time in 11 seasons.

ATHENS — Mark Leslie arrived at Trinity Valley Community College as an assistant coach for the 2012-13 season.

The Cardinals had made just three national tournament appearances (1982, 1995, 1999) in program history up until that point.

Now, 11 years later, Trinity Valley has added seven more national tournament trips to the ledger. The Cardinals went three straight years from 2014-16, again in 2018 and 2019, in 2021 and now they’re going in 2023 after an improbable run through the Region XIV Tournament.

“Our goal is to continue the success for this college and the people here and the support that we get year in and year out,” Coach Leslie said. “We pretty much expect to win. Ever since I’ve been here, this is my 11th year here, and it’s our seventh trip to the national tournament in that 11-year run. The people around here instill that in us. We expect to win.”

Leslie was an assistant coach on Kris Baumann’s staff for the 2014-16 national tournament appearances and an assistant on Guy Furr’s staff during the 2018 and 2019 runs. Furr is now an assistant coach on Leslie’s staff. This is Leslie’s third year as the Cardinals’ head coach, leading the program to the national tournament in 2021 when former John Tyler High School standout Darry Moore was playing for the Cardinals.

As is the case in junior college, two years later, it’s a completely different roster. And one of the players on this year’s roster is Coach Leslie’s son, MJ Leslie.

“It’s unreal,” MJ Leslie said. “It means a lot to do it with him. We’ve dream about this all of those times growing up, seeing him do it with other teams. I would just be around in the background spectating, and now to do it with him myself, it means a lot.”

“It’s special,” Coach Leslie said. “I would obviously be lying if I said it wasn’t. It’s great that he was able to come through in the biggest moment and have a really big game. It was great.”

After a 68-52 win over Paris in the quarterfinals, Trinity Valley was matched up against top-seeded Lee — ranked No. 11 in the country. The Cardinals were 11 of 23 from downtown to upset Lee with a 73-65 decision.

And then in the championship game, Trinity Valley took down second-seeded Panola — ranked No. 10 in the country — 76-74 in overtime. MJ Leslie had 23 points, eight rebounds and three steals to earn tournament MVP honors.

Also coming up big in the championship game was former Malakoff High School standout Klayton Copeland, who made all six of his free-throw attempts in overtime, including the game-winners with 1.8 seconds remaining.

“I just knew I had to stay ready, and my chance would come,” Copeland said.

Copeland said adding to the Trinity Valley tradition is special.

“It’s exciting,” Copeland said. “When you come in here and look in the gym and see all of these banners of past teams, it’s just a great feeling to be another team to get there.”

Also playing for the Cardinals is former Brownsboro High School standout Tylor Johnson.

“It’s crazy. When I graduated, I didn’t even think I was going to be here. And even my first year of college, I still didn’t think I was going to be playing basketball again,” Johnson said.

Johnson is in Trinity Valley’s starting lineup as is point guard Makhi Dorsey, who had 17 points and six assists in the championship victory over Panola.

“Words can’t explain it,” Dorsey said. “It was a long journey this year. At the beginning of the year, we knew we had a great team, but we had a lot of adversity and we needed to fight. I think that made us the team we are today. With the losing at the beginning of the year, that made us stronger. It’s wht we are where we’re at right now.”

Trinity Valley is 14-18 overall. The Cardinals originally started the season 8-6, but were forced to forfeit eight games which made it an 0-14 start at the end of 2022.

But since the calendar turned to 2023, it’s been a different story.

“I think that adversity has got us as strong as we are,” Coach Leslie said. “We knew we had some pieces, a lot of freshmen. We just kind of wanted to bring them along, but at the same time, learn those lessons along the way. Howard taught us a lesson. New Mexico taught us a lesson. Panola actually taught us two big lessons. I told Panola’s coach, Coach (Mike) Nesbitt, I said ‘you know you guys helped build us into what we are.’ Because we looked at them and said that’s the model, that level of energy. Once we got that level of energy and commitment, the rest has been history. We’ve been pretty good, 14-4 this semester.”

Those four losses came to Panola, Lee and Paris — the four teams they defeated at the Region XIV Tournament. The Cardinals will look to continue that momentum at the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.

“We’re not going to change nothing,” Coach Leslie said. “For the last eight weeks or so, our motto has been we’re going to play harder. We’re going to get through the ups and downs, never be too high, never be too low. An example was at Kilgore, Kilgore had us down 19 in the first half on ESPN, and the guys were able to fight back in that environment and win that game.”

The Cardinals — the 18 seed — will take on 15 seed Vincennes (28-5) in the first round of the NJCAA Tournament at 2 p.m. Monday. This will be the third meeting between Trinity Valley and Vincennes with the Cardinals winning the meetings in 1982 and 1995.

“Vincennes is a Hall of Fame program with a Hall of Fame coach,” Coach Leslie said. “They go down there pretty much like it’s spring break every year. They’re a tough, physical team that rebounds hard, is disciplined and well-coached. We’ve definitely got our work cut out, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The winner of Monday’s game will advance to face No. 2 Southern Idaho at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Trinity Valley’s best NJCAA Tournament finish was third in 1982. The Cardinals have advanced to the Sweet 16 in all of the past five trips.

Trinity Valley’s roster includes 6-7 freshman wing Micah Clark (Dallas), 6-4 sophomore guard KJ Pruitt (Lewisville), 6-0 freshman guard Makhi Dorsey (Plano), 6-0 sophomore guard MJ Leslie (Little Elm), 6-0 freshman guard Collin Wright (Fort Worth), 6-5 sophomore wing Zaakir Sawyer (Dallas), 6-5 sophomore forward Tylor Johnson (Brownsboro), 6-3 sophomore guard Najee Jones (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 6-6 freshman wing Kenyon Williams (Columbia, South Carolina), 6-7 freshman forward Alou Cisse (Yonkers, New York), 6-9 freshman forward Devyn Franklin (Forney), 6-7 sophomore forward Quevian Adger (Dallas), 6-4 sophomore wing Klayton Copeland (Malakoff), 6-11 freshman forward Jarred Hall (The Villages, Florida) and 6-8 freshman forward Ruslan Alogo-Evuna (Madrid Spain). Joining Leslie and Furr on the coaching staff is Chapel Hill High School graduate Matthew Scott.