Southeastern Alumni and previous head coach of the Southeastern’s Men’s Basketball team, Bill Kennedy accepted the position as head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas. Kennedy filled the vacancy after former Aggies head coach Mark Turgeon was announced as Maryland’s new basketball coach in early May 2011.

Born in Metairie, Louisiana, Kennedy graduated from Southeastern in 1986. He worked for 13 years as an assistant coach and 13 years as a head coach at several colleges across the nation. Kennedy served as head coach of the Lions from 1999-2005. Like many of the other colleges he coached for, he helped improve Southeastern’s record over the course of his career with the Lions.

His 2005 squad had much success in the conference regular-season and Southland Conference tournament. Beating Northwestern State University (NSU) 49-42 in the final game, Southeastern defeated the rival for the first time in 20 years and captured their first Southland Conference Tournament championship. Their victory landed them the 15-seed in the NCAA tournament, which was their first NCAA berth in school history.

However, they were defeated 63-50 by 2-seeded Oklahoma State during first round play. In 2005 The Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches selected Kennedy as the Louisiana Major College Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches also named him the District 8 Coach of the Year for the second year.

In his introductory press conference, Kennedy commented on how long he planned to stay with the Aggies.

“This is a dream job for me. I don’t want to go anywhere,” stated Kennedy, on the Aggie Athletics Web site. “I’m from Louisiana, family is close; I’ve got a base there. Now I’m from Texas. I plan on retiring here.”

Kennedy would like to schedule some non-conference, preseason games with other high-major teams. He specifically listed Louisiana State University as one team he would like to pursue for this type of match-up.