\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly excited to welcome Allen Caveness as the new leader of our boys\u2019 basketball program,\u201d said Jordan boys\u2019 athletic director Josh Dozier. \u201cCoach Caveness is a proven winner with roots in the Long Beach community and he brings experience from some of the highest levels of basketball. More importantly, he understands what it takes to develop young men, build a strong culture, and create a program our school and community can be proud of. We believe he is the perfect person to lead Jordan Basketball into its next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caveness makes his return to Long Beach, where he spent nearly a decade of his coaching career. Most notably, Caveness was the head coach at St. Anthony High for seven seasons, leading the Saints to four league championships during his tenure, plus a CIF-SS Open Division appearance in 2020.<\/p>\n
He mentioned that a return to the city was another key factor in pursuing the job in J-Town\u2013getting back to a place where he\u2019s felt welcomed and had plenty of success.<\/p>\n
![\"LBSUMBB.030522](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LBSUMBB.030522-163_Original-735x1024.jpeg\")
Caveness spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Long Beach State, winning a Big West regular season title in 2022. Courtesy photo.<\/p>\n
When he left St. Anthony back in 2021, Caveness elevated himself to the NCAA Division I ranks, taking an assistant coaching position at Long Beach State. After two seasons at The Beach under head coach Dan Monson, Caveness took the head job at St. Monica High School.<\/p>\n
The Inglewood native has been heavily involved in the SoCal hoops scene for decades, serving as a coach in the prestigious Drew League since 2007. He also made head coaching stops at multiple junior colleges in the area before making the jump to Division II Cal State Dominguez Hills, where he coached for two seasons before taking over at St. Anthony.<\/p>\n
Though Caveness has extensive experience as a collegiate coach, he enjoys the level of mentorship you can provide at the high school level, and he strives to maintain lifelong relationships with his former players.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the ability to connect in a relationship,\u201d explained Caveness of what makes coaching high school teams special. \u201cI\u2019ve been a full-time teacher for the last 10 years at St. Anthony and St. Monica, and seeing kids from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and then having another two to three hours, four hours with them on a game day, you really get a chance to build relationships and connect with the young men. For me, that\u2019s the best part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caveness takes over a proud and reinvigorated program in J-Town, following a successful five-year tenure under previous head coach, Chris Francis. The two were actually teammates in the Drew League and have known each other for over two decades. The Panthers won a CIF-SS title in 2023 under Francis, and made a CIF quarterfinal appearance last season led by a strong junior class.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some really good players in the program already,\u201d Caveness said. \u201cHe\u2019s developed them, and they\u2019ve gotten better over the last few years. So being able to come into an environment where there\u2019s some kids that already make us competitive and viable, is something that for sure is exciting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One big challenge for Jordan is the ongoing construction on their home gym, which is not scheduled to be completed prior to the upcoming season. The Panthers made use of other local gyms at Compton College, Browning High, and elsewhere last season, and that will continue in the year ahead. Caveness indicated that his preference will be to host as many practices and games at Compton College as possible, and that he\u2019s very much looking forward to opening a brand new facility on the North Side.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod willing, we\u2019ll be able to open the doors on the facility for the beginning of the 27-28 season,\u201d Caveness explained. \u201cHaving one of the premier, if not the premier facilities in this area is something that\u2019s going to be really really exciting, and being able to be part of that opening is something that definitely stood out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser and the Timu Foundation. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-411243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}