UTRGV introduces Fennell as men’s basketball head coach

EDINBURG — After a collegiate playing career at the University of Redlands, Kahil Fennell was ready to put basketball behind him.

Shortly after graduation he joined corporate America and spent time selling medical devices. The itch to compete came crawling back, however.

In 2014, Fennell began his journey as a basketball coach, starting off as a junior varsity coach at Alameda High School in California. In just a short 10-year span he’s climbed the ranks, going from a JV coach in California to an assistant coach at Brigham Young University the past two years.

Now he can officially add NCAA Division I head coach to his resumè, officially being introduced as the new head coach of UTRGV men’s basketball during a news conference Wednesday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg.

Kahil Fennell is presented as the UTRGV’s new men’s basketball coach. (Delcia Lopez | The Monitor)

“Being a head coach anywhere would be a tremendous opportunity I’d be thankful for,” Fennell said. “To be a head coach and my first job being here and starting my career here at the head coaching level, it is hard to put into words.”

Fennell’s collegiate coach career has featured more than a handful of stops, first getting his foot into the college world in 2015 as an assistant coach at UT Permian Basin before being promoted to associate head coach in 2016.

A year later, he brought his talents to Portland State, serving as an assistant coach for the Vikings for one year. After a brief stint at Portland State, Fennell made the move to Louisville, where he spent the next four years on the Cardinals’ coaching staff.

During his tenure at Louisville, the Cardinals posted a 70-47 record, including a 24-7 mark in 2020 en route to a second-place finish in the ACC.

His final stop before landing the head coaching job at UTRGV came at BYU, spending the past two years with the Cougars. During his time at BYU, the Cougars amassed 42 wins, including a 23-win season and NCAA tournament appearance this year.

“It’s been an unbelievable journey and an unbelievable ride,” Fennell said. “I’ve told Chasse (Conque) several times that I wouldn’t change it for anything. That linear route that I’ve talked about with other coaches in the industry, I think you can miss a trip. I think it can get a little more stale or a little old for you. You can get a little more frustrated, and the season can feel a little longer if you’ve been doing it for 30 years straight. For me it is still new. It is still something I’m excited for every day. … Every aspect of being a coach is new for me. It is exciting for me and it’s something I’m passionate about. This journey has been a trip so far.”

Fennell takes over a UTRGV team that struggled a season ago. The Vaqueros finished the 2024 campaign with a 6-25 overall record, including a 2-18 Western Athletic Conference record and a 14-game losing streak to close out the year.

He’ll be tasked with guiding the Vaqueros into the Southland Conference as they prepare to make the move to the conference in the summer.

Fennell is ready to take the challenge head on, already gearing up for the upcoming season.

“I’d like to get to building my staff,” Fennell said. “I’d like to have a roster. We need to have 13 scholarship guys. We need our walk-ons to be a part of this. We need our support staff, from student mangers to directors of operations. I’d like to have that true team put in place so we can attack this thing collectively. I think a number of heads is better than one. I think we can come up with different ideas and different areas of approach to be ready to be able to attack things from a holistic level and be pulling in the same direction.”

ivan@themonitor.com

The post UTRGV introduces Fennell as men’s basketball head coach appeared first on MyRGV.com.