Cecil Avant joined the Florida Tech men’s basketball staff ahead of the 2025–26 season, bringing more than 15 years of coaching experience across the high school, travel, collegiate, and player development levels.
Avant has built a diverse coaching background that includes serving as a head high school coach, directing an AAU program, and working extensively in player development with high-level athletes. His experience spans both boys and girls programs, with a strong track record of helping student-athletes advance to the collegiate level.
Prior to arriving at Florida Tech, Avant spent six seasons (2014–2020) as the head boys’ varsity basketball coach at South Plantation High School. In 2020, he relocated to Orlando and became a founding member and Director of Player Development at Nona Basketball Academy. In that role, he helped grow the academy to more than 200 players and over 10 competitive teams, while overseeing skill development programs and mentoring athletes across multiple age groups.
Avant’s coaching career began at the collegiate level, where he served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.
As a player, Avant competed at Florida Gulf Coast University from 2005 to 2007 before transferring to Nova Southeastern University, where he was named team captain during the 2007–08 season. He later finished his collegiate career at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, helping lead the program to a conference championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance while averaging 12 points and four assists per game and shooting 95 percent from the free throw line.
A South Florida native, Avant graduated from Cypress Bay High School in 2005. He currently resides in Palm Bay with his wife, Lorraine, and their two daughters, Jaida and Grace.
