coach starr 2018

Kelvin Starr

Coaching and Playing Career

Awards:
  • NABC-NAIA Division 1 Coach of the Year (17-18)
  • 3x GSAC Coach of the Year (05-06, 17-18, 18-19)
Highlights:
  • Starr completed his fifth season as head coach at TMU in 2020-2021 and holds a record of 128-26 (.831).
  • His teams have been ranked No. 1 in the NAIA more than once during his tenure and he led the Mustangs to four consecutive NAIA national tournament appearances from 2017-20. 
  • In 2016-17, Starr's first season, the Mustangs won 27 games and advanced to the second round of the NAIA national tournament. This after the program had won four games in 2015-16 and missed the NAIA tournament every year since 2000.
  • In 2017-18, TMU finished the year 29-3, winning its second-straight GSAC Tournament title and the first GSAC regular season championship in program history. 
  • The Mustangs won a program-record 25-straight games from Nov. 4, 2017, to Feb. 17, 2018. They also won a TMU record 47 consecutive home games between 2017 and 2020.
  • In 2018-19, Master's won both the GSAC regular season and GSAC Tournament titles for the second-straight season.
  • A native of Sydney, Australia, Starr formerly worked as executive pastor at Seven Church San Diego in Lakeside, Calif. Along with his ministry responsibilities (starting in March 2014), he served as the director of operations for the Top Gun Basketball Academy in San Diego from 2013 to 2015.
  • Starr’s coaching career began in 1996 when he was hired as an assistant basketball coach at Christian Heritage College (now San Diego Christian College), a position he held until 2002. During that six-year period, the Hawks won the National Christian College Athletic Association national title twice (1997, 1998) and made it to the NAIA Final Four in 2001.
  • Named head coach at Christian Heritage in 2002 and proceeded to craft a 104-60 record over the next five years. In that window, he coached the Hawks to another NCCAA national crown (2004), Top 25 NAIA rankings in 2005 and 2006 and NAIA national tournament appearances in 2006 and 2007.
  • Led the Hawks to the program’s first-ever GSAC regular-season championship, a 24-6 overall record and a No. 7 national ranking in 2006-07. 
  • Named NCCAA Coach of the Year in 2004-05 and GSAC Athletic Director of the Year in 2006-07.
  • Leaving San Diego Christian in the summer of 2007, Starr took over the coaching reins at Christian High School in El Cajon, while also assuming responsibilities as director of Sports and Recreation Ministry at Shadow Mountain Community Church.
  • Starr graduated from Christian Heritage College where he played basketball and earned his bachelor's of science in physical education in 1996 before completing an M.Ed. from Azusa Pacific University.
  • He and his wife, Heather, have three boys.