Former National Coach of the Year Bill Lewit started with Oral Roberts as an assistant coach in May 2023. Prior to joining the ORU staff, he spent three seasons as head coach at John Curtis Christian School in New Orleans, Louisiana from 2020-23 highlighted by a regional championship and state championship runner-up in the highest classification in 2022. Before that he spent one season as an assistant coach for the UT Martin Skyhawk program in 2019-20.
Lewit oversaw a pair of All-Ohio Valley Conference players in Quintin Dove and Parker Stewart. Dove became the first Skyhawk to lead the OVC in scoring in league play (22.3 points per game) since two-time All-American Lester Hudson accomplished that feat in 2008-09. He was the only NCAA Division I player to average at least 20 points and seven rebounds per game while shooting over 78 percent from the charity stripe. Stewart joined Hudson as the only players in school history to win the OVC Newcomer of the Week award at least five times in a single season. Stewart was the only NCAA Division I player to average at least 19.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 three-point field goals made per game. The pair also each earned a spot on the NABC All-District 18 accolades.
Lewit brought 24 years of collegiate coaching experience to UT Martin, including a highly successful 14-year stint as the all-time winningest head coach at Cecil College in North East, Md. He earned National Coach of the Year honors after guiding the Seahawks to the 2006 NJCAA Division II national championship. Overall, he was responsible for a 354-89 record at Cecil, winning a combined 15 conference and region Coach of the Year accolades.
The Little Silver, NJ native has spent the last decade as an assistant coach in the NCAA Division I ranks, spending time at the University of New Orleans (2009-11) and Northwestern State University (2011-19), both located in Louisiana.
At Northwestern State, Lewit assisted head coach Mike McConathy as the Demons chalked up one of its best runs in school history. That stretch began in Lewit’s second season at the helm as the 2012-13 Northwestern State squad won the Southland Conference tournament championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Demons compiled a 23-9 overall record, which was the second-best win total in a century of basketball at the school.
Northwestern State made another postseason appearance in 2014-15, hosting UT Martin in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT). The Demons specialized in a high-powered offense during Lewit’s tenure, as Northwestern State led the nation in scoring (84.0 points per game) in 2014-15 after finishing in the top-two nationally in that category in each of the previous two seasons. The Demons also finished in the top-10 in all of Division I basketball in steals (twice) and blocks from 2012-14.
Lewit helped develop one of the nation’s top backcourt duos in Zeek Woodley and Jalan West at Northwestern State. Each three-time All-Southland Conference honorees, Woodley would finish his career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,033 points while West concluded his Demon career ranking first in school history in three-point field goals made (236) and assists (652) to go along with 1,690 points. Woodley ranked second in the country in scoring at 22.2 points per game while West tossed in 20.0 points and chipped in an NCAA-best 7.7 assists per contest in 2014-15.
Off the court, Lewit was instrumental in Northwestern State’s academic success. He helped the Demons earn a pair of NCAA academic recognitions in 2014, including ranking among the nation’s top 10 percent on Academic Progress Rate study and the top spot in the Southland Conference – as well as amongst Louisiana’s public institutions – on the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (98 percent).
Lewit spent two seasons at New Orleans assisting under head coach Joe Pasternack. Lewit’s role expanded to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for the 2010-11 campaign, as the Privateers accounted for a .727 overall winning percentage that season.
Lewit reached the pinnacle of success at Cecil, building the program into a perennial national powerhouse. He also maintained 100 percent eligibility for his student-athletes and graduated 91.1 percent of his sophomores (62 of 68) over his 14-year stretch, sending 39 student-athletes to Division I scholarships and 30 more to Division II scholarships.
Lewit led Cecil to the No. 1 spot in the final NJCAA regular season polls three times and top-seven finishes in each of his final 11 seasons. His 2005-06 national championship squad was the first team in NJCAA history to begin the season ranked No. 1 nationally, end the year as the No. 1 ranked team in the regular season and go on to win the national title.
Overall, Cecil won six Maryland JUCO regular season championships, five state tournament titles and six Region XX championships in Lewit’s tenure. The Seahawks won at least 21 games in each of his final 12 seasons, including 31 or more victories over each of his final five years. Cecil boasted an 80-game winning streak against Maryland JUCO opponents while overseeing nine All-Americans, 26 all-region honorees and 22 all-conference recipients.
In April of 2010, Lewit was inducted into Red Bank Regional New Jersey Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. He was the youngest inductee at the time.
In March of 2019, Lewit was inducted into the Cecil College Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2022, he was also inducted into the Red Bank Regional Athletic Department Hall of Fame after a standout three-sport playing career at Red Bank Regional High School.
As a collegiate student-athlete, Lewit set a school record by becoming the only person to earn four varsity letters in both football and basketball at Salisbury University in Maryland. He won the school’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 1991, leading the football squad in receptions and receiving yards while pacing the basketball team in three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage.
Shortly after earning his bachelor’s degree in communications from Salisbury in 1991, Lewit obtained his Master’s degree from Salisbury in education and counseling in 1993. He officially started his coaching career with assistant coach stints at Wicomico High School (1993-94) and Snow Hill High School (1994-95), both located in the state of Maryland.
