Meet Coach Hester

We will offer a Q-and-A with Coach Hester in the near future.

Talvin Hester - New Men's Assistant Basketball Coach
San Jose State Athletics
6/9/2010

San Jose, Calif.-----Talvin Hester, formerly the associate head coach of the Prairie View A&M University men's basketball program, has accepted a men's basketball assistant coaching position at San Jose State University. George Nessman, the Spartans' head coach, made the announcement.

Hester spent five seasons (2006 through 2010) at Prairie View A&M and helped the Panthers to winning records in 2009 and 2010. Prior to 2009, Prairie View suffered five consecutive losing seasons, failed to win at least 10 games in each of those seasons and did not have back-to-back winning records for a 50-year span.

"Talvin Hester will be a great asset in many phases of our program. We are excited and pleased that he has made the decision to become a Spartan. Talvin did outstanding work at Prairie View as the Associate Head Coach," Nessman says about Hester who helped the Panthers finish in the top-15 nationally in field goal percentage defense (14th) and three-point field goal percentage defense (11th) last season.

"He is a proven coach who helped direct Prairie View's rise up the SWAC (Southwest Athletic Conference) standings in large measure due to their dramatic improvement on the defensive end. Talvin is a skilled recruiter who will be counted upon to bring us into some new recruiting territories. He is a personable and gregarious individual who connects well with young people.

"Talvin shares common values with our staff and should be a great fit for us as we press forward with the continued growth and development of Spartan basketball."

The new San Jose State assistant broke into coaching in 2002 at North Lake College in Irving, Texas. His wide-ranging coaching resume includes stops with the Texas Rim Rockers of the United States Basketball League as an assistant coaching intern and the Dallas Mustangs AAU team for one season. He was an assistant coach at Texas College in Tyler, Texas for the 2005 season before going to Prairie View A&M.

A 2003 Texas Wesleyan University graduate, he majored in interdisciplinary studies. Hester played his college basketball at Dallas Christian College.

"It's exciting to take on a new job in a new league (the Western Athletic Conference) in a new area for my family and me. I'm happy to work for Coach Nessman. For him to believe in me is a big thing. I'm ready to work as hard as I can to help this program," says the new San Jose State assistant coach who will be 32-years old in July.

The Toledo, Ohio native and his wife, Jamieka, an elementary school teacher who specializes in teaching English as a second language, are in the process of relocating to California.