Retired Cleveland State men’s basketball coach Dan Trotter will be inducted into the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb.
20. The ceremony will will take place in the L.Quentin Lane Gymnasium on the Cleveland State campus at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Dyersburg State which starts at 2 p.m.
As the head men’s basketball coach from 1984 to 1987, his teams had an overall record of 58 wins and 24 losses.
During the 1984 season, he coached the team to the college’s first Tennessee Junior College Athletic Association Eastern Division Championship. That year the team was the State runner -up and qualified for the NJCAA Region VII post-season tournament for the first time in 18 years. The season culminated in his being named the TJCCAA Eastern Division Coach of the Year.
Under his coaching the team earned the first national ranking in Cleveland State basketball history.
Trotter was inducted into the Cleveland State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.
Prior to coaching at Cleveland State, he recorded eight consecutive winning seasons as head men’s basketball coach at Martin Methodist College, and was also inducted into the Martin Methodist Sports Hall of Fame.
A high school administrator and then elementary school principal from 1987 to 2008, he was named Georgia’s 2007 Elementary Principal of the Year. Other honors previously received by the former educator include Columbus State University College of Education Distinguished Alumnus (2007) and Columbus State University Education Hall of Fame inductee (2008)
He and his wife of 38 years Debbie, have three children, Natalie, Trey, and Caroline, and seven grandchildren.
Cleveland State Director of Athletics Mike Policastro said, “We are pleased that Coach Trotter is being inducted into the TCCAA Hall of Fame. This is a tremendous honor. He had an outstanding career coaching at the junior college level and a successful career in public education.”