Steve Spurlin (basketball coach)

Steve Spurlin is an American basketball coach best known as head men's basketball coach at Blinn College, a junior college in Brenham, Texas.^[1]

Blinn College

Spurlin coached the Buccaneers for 11 seasons. When he stepped down in 2009 he had coached for 21 years and was the longest-serving head coach on Blinn's staff. His teams reached the Region 14 tournament in five of his 11 seasons.^[1]

In June 2004 he was one of five finalists, from 13 applicants, to replace Blinn athletic director Don Wilhelm, who was due to step down that August. He told the Brenham Banner-Press that he expected his lack of experience to count against him and that he thought another candidate would be chosen.^[2]

In 2005–06 Blinn went 14–16 (7–14 in conference) and missed the playoffs for a second straight year. The Banner-Press's October 2006 season preview reported that in earlier seasons Blinn had been the only basketball program in its conference that did not offer players the full Pell Grant, which cost it recruits, and that 2006–07 was the first full recruiting season in which it could. Spurlin called that year's class the best he had signed in nine seasons at Blinn.^[3] In November 2006 his team beat Palo Alto College 138–90 in its home opener to go 4–0.^[4] In 2007–08 the Buccaneers went 18–12 and finished fifth in NJCAA Region XIV, according to a University of Texas at San Antonio release on a Blinn transfer.^[5] In 2008–09 they went 23–9. It was Blinn's first 20-win season in more than 20 years and the first time under Spurlin that the team reached the second round of the Region 14 tournament.^[1]

Resignation

The Brenham Banner-Press reported on August 10, 2009, that Spurlin had handed in his resignation that Monday.^[1] He said he had struggled with the decision all summer before concluding that Blinn could not win a championship in the coming years. He said the team's goal had been to finish fourth. He blamed two recruiting disadvantages: other schools gave players more Pell Grant money, and Blinn had recently started running background checks on students living on campus and barring those with violent criminal records. He also said he wanted more time with his family, and that he planned to spend the fall at home and look into a teaching job in the spring. Athletic director David Rehr thanked him and said Blinn would begin a coaching search with three weeks left before classes started.^[1] Four days later Blinn named Tra Arnold, Spurlin's assistant for the previous five seasons, interim head coach.^[6]

Later activity

A public LinkedIn profile under the name Steve Spurlin describes a basketball trainer. This page does not confirm that it belongs to the same person.^[7]