The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced men’s basketball assistant coach Jai Steadman will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
Steadman will now lead the programs after Head Coach Lew Hill passed away unexpectedly Sunday, Feb. 7.
In a news conference Thursday via Zoom, Steadman spoke about carrying Hill’s legacy at UTRGV for the final month of the season.
“As long as I’m here his legacy will continue,” Stedman says. “We’ll play and compete as hard as Coach Hill’s instilled on us, it’s the only way we know how to do things.”
Their friendship goes back to 1999 when the two first met as Hill, then an assistant coach at Texas A&M University, went to Tyler Junior College on a recruiting visit where Steadman was an assistant coach.
In a news conference Wednesday via Zoom, Steadman recounted his impressions of Hill when the two first met.
“He had a glow to him, and I knew a lot of coaches back then,” Steadman says. “He is one of the few…, ‘man, I want to be like this guy when I get older.’ His charisma, his attention to detail, his personality, everybody everywhere we would go would come up to him asking him questions.”
Steadman’s coaching background includes 22 years of experience spanning the high school, college and professional levels before joining then legacy institution University of Texas Pan-American in 2014 under former Head Coach Dan Hipsher.
When Hill was hired as head coach at UTRGV in March 2016, he kept Steadman on his staff where he would remain for the past seven years overseeing on-court coaching, recruiting, scheduling and scouting.
Although Steadman admits that this is not how he would have wanted to become a head coach, he has spoken to members of the Hill family about the responsibility.
“Just to hear it from his brother and his wife and his family telling me, ‘Come on Stead, let’s keep this thing going. You can do it,’” he says.
UTRGV Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque says he cherishes Steadman stepping into a new position during a difficult time in a news conference Thursday via Zoom.
“Jai brings a lot to the table, brings a lot of institutional knowledge, he brings a lot of knowledge about our program,” Conque says. “A lot of knowledge about what Coach Hill has instilled in our program and so I truly believe we are in great hands as we take this next step in this journey during, again, most unusual circumstances.”
For the remainder of the season Steadman says the program will look to win a WAC Title come March by taking inspirations from the lesson Coach Hill has left behind.
“It will be done and the players we recruited, his style, the way we practice and everything he’s taught us is the formula for success and we will do our best to complete the journey and win this championship,” Steadman says.
The Vaqueros are not scheduled to play this weekend as the team continues to take time to mourn the loss of Hill but are slated to return to the hardwood 7 p.m. Feb. 19 and 20 as they host Seattle U.
You can watch the game live on the WAC Digital Network at wacdigitalnetwork.com.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
