Former Texas-Rio Grande Valley associate men’s basketball coach Brock Erickson is signed on to become the next head coach of the Eagles next season, according to a statement from the school on Monday via social media. Erickson, too, has acknowledged the hire in his X bio.

Erickson helped current head coach Kahil Fennell lead UTRGV to two winning seasons since 2024, including a 14-8 finish last season in the Southland Conference. Western Michigan hired away Fennell, a former BYU assistant to current Kentucky head coach Mark Pope, last month.

His decision to come to LCA, Erickson told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday, begins with college basketball and the hard work required to prepare athletes for that level.

“I’ve played and coached at a lot of different levels, and it’s all just been because I love coaching – I love helping kids,” Erickson said.

“That’s kind of why I’ve been on this journey, and that’s why I’ve moved around so much… My time in junior college, I really loved coaching kids at a younger age, where I could shape them both as young men and as players, and I also liked helping them find the right opportunity at the next level.”

Before moving to Texas, Erickson went 73-14 in three seasons as head coach of Division III Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, including two Commonwealth Coast Conference championships and three regular-season titles.

Erickson’s been part of 11 different champions in 16 years as a college basketball coach, including a stop at Utah State Eastern, formerly known as the College of Eastern Utah before 2010.

His time in the Beehive state was instrumental to becoming a successful coach at the college level, Erickson said.

“I literally just packed a bag and moved to Utah,” Erickson said. “It was an unbelievable experience and it really started my coaching journey… I’ve gone to a lot of different schools, I’ve bounced around a lot, and part of that is just because I just really want it to be a successful coach and there’s so many different levels to that.”

Needless to say, it’s a big move for LCA to go after a Division I coach, but not a particularly surprising move given the school’s shift toward a national schedule while competing as an independent member of the UHSAA.

Erickson and former coach Casey Stanley, who left LCA earlier this month after three seasons to become the next head men’s basketball coach at Division II Westminster, have ties from their coaching days as assistants to Rick Pitino at Iona in New Rochelle, New York.

“I’d talked with (Stanley) about it and he told me what a great opportunity it was,” Erickson said of the LCA opening. “He really made it into a national brand… Those guys have a vision for the basketball program to continue with what Casey has done and made it into a top-20, top-30 program every year and that really excited me.”

Stanley’s tenure at LCA was, in fact, beneficial to the school’s boys basketball program. No longer eligible for postseason play as an independent, the Eagles finished the season ranked fifth in Utah and No. 48 nationally by MaxPreps.

Stanley went 66-20 during his tenure and produced a state championship during the 2023-24 campaign, the last time LCA was eligible for the postseason in Utah. He produced local standouts Tyrin Jones, who recently re-signed with UNLV for his sophomore season, and Omar Mowafak, who is signed to play for Todd Phillips next season at Utah Valley.

Last fall, Stanley and the Eagles competed with some of the country’s leading high school programs at The Border League in Las Vegas.

Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.