GCU Athletics

James Navalance

Assistant Coach | 5th Season 

Coach James Navalance has been a mainstay with Georgian Court Women's Basketball and is entering his fifth year with the program in 2022-23. Navalance has worked his way up after starting as a student manager in 2018. He then became the team's graduate assistant coach in 2020, helping the Lions win the CACC regular season and reach the NCAA Tournament. As a graduate assistant, Navalance was a member of the inaugural 22-person TopConnect Graduate Assistant Program led by Rob Ehsan.

Navalance is now in his second season as an assistant coach after having been a part of Phil Beckner's Coaching Mentorship Group, one of just 40 coaches in the select group. This past summer, he was also a part of Beckner's Develop2Compete program as a lead intern, working the NBA pre-draft process and NBA player workouts. 

In addition to his work with the Lions, Navalance has been heavily involved in other basketball projects. He's been a college basketball writer for Game Haus, an online publication, and hosts the Sports Conversation with James Navalance Podcast for the Bleav Network.