An HBCU teaching standout is making the leap to Division I. Delano Thomas, who lately led Florida Memorial College to nationwide success, has joined the boys’s basketball employees at Excessive Level College for the 2025-26 season.
Thomas arrives at Excessive Level after a two-year stint at Florida Memorial, an HBCU within the NAIA ranks. From 2023 to 2025, he compiled a 47-15 total report and guided the workforce to a 2024 Solar Convention Event championship and nationwide event berth. His success at FMU constructed upon a exceptional teaching journey that started at his alma mater, Shawnee State.
At Shawnee State, Thomas engineered some of the spectacular turnarounds in small-college basketball historical past. After taking on in 2017, he led the Bears to a 31-2 report within the 2020-21 season, culminating in this system’s first-ever NAIA nationwide championship. The Bears captured the Mid-South common season and event titles throughout that run, with Thomas incomes nationwide honors together with NAIA Coach of the 12 months and the Don Meyer Coach of the 12 months Award.
In complete, Thomas has coached a number of All-People and despatched 9 gamers into the skilled ranks, together with one presently within the NBA G-League. His popularity for participant improvement and program-building has been firmly established within the HBCU and NAIA teaching communities.
Thomas additionally brings worldwide expertise to the Division I ranks. After starring at Shawnee State from 2002 to 2004—the place he stays the varsity’s all-time chief in blocks and rebounds per sport—he performed professionally for 9 years in six international locations. His teaching profession additionally contains profitable stints in Norway and Uruguay at varied youth and highschool ranges.
A local of Columbus, Ohio, and a 2017 Shawnee State Athletic Corridor of Fame inductee, Thomas now begins a brand new chapter in Excessive Level together with his spouse and two youngsters, persevering with a basketball journey rooted in HBCU excellence and worldwide expertise.
