The Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC) will look a little different next season, as several programs in the conference have seen major changes to the leadership of their programs moving forward. With the departure of a few coaches in the league, there will be some new faces in leadership at the head coaching positions in the ACCAC next fall.
The biggest change included the departure of Scottsdale Junior College Head Coach Mark Bunker, after he accepted a head coaching position at Western New Mexico University. In (9) seasons as the Head Coach @ Scottsdale CC, Bunker produced a 136-114 record. Bunker worked tirelessly at Scottsdale JC to produce winning teams annually, and, for the first time in school history, led Scottsdale JC to back-to-back ACCAC D-II Conference titles. He also led the program to the program's most win's in school history in 2023, when the Artichokes won (25) games. Scottsdale JC also finished with a 25-9 overall record this past season in Bunker's final season, including a trip to the Region I Division II Championship.
Scottsdale Junior College has now hired former Shadow Mountain High School Head Coach and former Arizona State University basketball standout Curtis Millage. After finishing his college basketball career at ASU, Millage turned pro. He played professionally in China, Croatia, Ukraine and Latvia. Millage announced his retirement from basketball in 2017. In 2019, Millage was hired as the head basketball coach for Shadow Mountain High School, following the departure of former NBA star guard an head coach Mike Bibby. He coached at Shadow Mountain for (4) seasons, before recently stepping down. Millage will now take over a very successful Scottsdale Junior College men's basketball program that is coming off winning consecutive ACCAC Division-II titles.
Yavapai Junior College recently announced their program's return to men's basketball just last year, but after one season with former Head Coach Jay Joyner at the helm, the program was left looking for a new head coach after Joyner's recent resignation. After a long interview process with many candidates for the vacant coaching position, Yavapai landed on Kevon Davis (pictured) as their new head coach. Davis brings with him loads of junior college coaching experience from numerous Division-I junior college programs around the country. Davis has been regarded in the business as a very good hire for the opportunity at Yavapai, which will be reducing their total number of scholarships available for next season.
Central Arizona Junior College recently announced the suspension of their men's basketball program for next season. Former CAC Head Coach Tramaine Aaron was released from his coaching duties by the program during the junior college season last year, and Jesse Brown finished the season as the interim head coach for the program. Aaron had been the head coach at CAC for the past (9) seasons, where he finished with a 108-122 record. His team was 1-5 on the season at the time of the coaching change. While everything is figured out with the program, there will be no basketball next season at the program. This is a very sad situation for a once storied junior college basketball program in the conference.
Next year will look very different in the ACCAC in some cases, but in many other cases, it will look very much the same.
