Bio

Lester Neal is in his second season as Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Mesa Community College. Lester was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and he attended Dunbar Vocational High School where he was a stellar athlete. 

Lester went on to play basketball at Ventura College located in Ventura, California. While at Ventura Lester became a two-time conference MVP, First Team All-State player, Juco All-American and a 2009 Inductee into the Ventura College Hall of Fame. During the 2019 season, Lester was Inducted into the California Community College Men’s Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Lester transferred to Arizona State University to play basketball under Bill Frieder during the 1991-1993 seasons. In 1993, Lester was the Pac-10s Leading Rebounder. Following his senior campaign Lester became the first recipient of the Lester Neal “Warrior Award”; an award created in his honor by his coaches for his leadership, work ethic and dedication. The award was given to players seasons after him. 

In the fall of 1993 Lester realized his dream was coming true as he began embarking on what would be a ten-year professional basketball career playing throughout Europe, Asia and South America. 

Following his professional basketball career, Lester earned his degree from Arizona State University and established a new career working with youth and families from low-income communities in Arizona. His love for basketball began calling him and Coach Neal (as he affectionately likes to be called) began developing his coaching skills with his own AAU program, the Arizona HYPE. He then went on to spend three seasons coaching at Scottsdale Community College and three seasons coaching at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. 

Prior to Mesa, Coach Neal spent the past three seasons coaching at his alma mater Ventura College where the team completed their first undefeated conference schedule since 2008 and its fifth consecutive Western Conference Championship.