Rick Cabrera
Hugo Ricardo Cabrera Jr. is an American basketball coach who is the current head coach of the Northwestern State Demons men's basketball team.
Early life and education
Cabrera grew up in Spring Valley, New York, and graduated from Albertus Magnus High School in 1994.After high school, Cabrera played junior college basketball for two seasons, first at Kemper Military School in 1994–95, then at Vincennes University in 1995–96. At Vincennes, he was teammates with future NBA players Shawn Marion and Tyrone Nesby. In 1996, Cabrera transferred to Tennessee Tech, where in two seasons he played 49 games and averaged 6.8 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists as a guard. Cabrera completed his bachelor's degree in multidisciplinary studies in 1999 and master's degree in instructional leadership in 2001, both at Tennessee Tech.
Coaching career
Early coaching career (1998–2004)
From 1998 to 1999, Cabrera was head boys' basketball coach and athletics director at Volunteer Christian Academy in Sparta, Tennessee.In 1999, Cabrera returned to Tennessee Tech to be a graduate assistant for one season under head coach Jeff Lebo. From 2001 to 2002, Cabrera was an assistant basketball coach at Miami Killian Senior High School.
From 2002 to 2004, Cabrera was an assistant coach at Keystone College.
Lackawanna (2004–2008)
Then from 2004 to 2008, Cabrera was head coach at Lackawanna College. In four years he guided Lackawanna to a 100–29 record as well as three regular season titles and two conference tournament titles.Division I assistant (2008–2021)
Returning to the NCAA Division I coaching ranks, Cabrera was an assistant at Chattanooga from 2008 to 2012 under head coach John Shulman, who was previously an assistant at Tennessee Tech. With Cabrera as an assistant, Chattanooga won two Southern Conference division titles and the 2009 Southern Conference Tournament, also appearing in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.On June 1, 2012, Cabrera began a second stint as assistant coach at Tennessee Tech, this time under head coach Steve Payne.
Then on May 8, 2017, Cabrera joined the staff of Matt Figger as an assistant coach at Austin Peay.
On May 8, 2019, Cabrera became an assistant at Arkansas State under Mike Balado.