On Wednesday, Edward Waters University officially introduced Cabral Huff as its new men’s basketball head coach.
Huff previously served as the Head Men’s Basketball coach and Athletic Booster Club Coordinator at Voorhees University for the past three seasons. Under his leadership, Voorhees won the Continental Athletic Conference championship in 2020-21, qualifying for the NAIA tournament. The team finished 14-14 in 2022-23.
Before his time at Voorhees, Huff coached high school basketball in Atlanta and also coached at the college level at programs including Division 1 Georgia Southern.
At EWU, Huff replaces interim head coach Howard White Jr. and will be the Tigers’ fourth coach since 2017-18.
University president A. Zachary Faison said EWU is aiming for SIAC honors as well as contending for an NCAA Division II national title.
In the 2022-23 season, the Tigers finished 10-19 but with Huff as the new coach, Faison is hoping to quickly turn things around.
“[The key factors were] his passion for developing student-athletes, and his record of winning,” Faison said. “We wanted someone that was a demonstrated winner.”
According to the Florida Times-Union, Huff promised to bring up-tempo, intense basketball, and a commitment to Edward Waters through what he calls the “four Vitamin E’s”: energy, effort, enthusiasm, and execution.
“We’re going to be playing fast,” Huff said. “We’re going to dictate offensively, dictate defensively, what we’re trying to do. We don’t want teams to think it’s easy.”
Huff spoke about his goals for the program, including wanting to empower the players.
“I want to establish a program of excellence on and off the court by being one percent better daily, building better people which in turn produces better student-athletes while building trust amongst the players, the entire Edward Waters faculty & staff and the Jacksonville community. These things will help us in our quest to compete not just in the SIAC and a spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament, but in life” Huff said.
Huff also said that he plans to focus on recruiting players in a six-hour radius around Jacksonville, from Charlotte to Atlanta to Mobile and down to Miami.
“We want to find them. Sign them. Recruit them. Develop them. And graduate them,” Huff said.
