Billy Bales is entering his second season as a Graduate Assistant for the Men's Basketball Team. In his first year, Bales helped guide the Bears to the most wins in a season since 2007-08 and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
During the 2018-19 season, Lenoir-Rhyne beat Queens twice while the Royals were ranked inside the top 10 in the nation and also beat Lincoln Memorial for the first time since 2010. The Bears earned the first SAC Tournament win since 2009 and advanced to their first SAC Tournament Championship game since 2005.
In addition to his coaching prowess, Bales is also adept with marketing and graphic design. Bales runs the program's social media accounts and does the graphic design and Photoshop editing as well as creative media posts while also running the summer camps.
As an undergraduate, Bales is coming off a decorated career on the hardwood with the Bears, serving as captain of the team from 2016-18.
Bales dawned the Red and Black on the hardwood from 2014-18 and served as Team Captain his junior and senior seasons. During his decorated campaign for the Bears, he led the team to a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament, was a historic-shooter from three-point land with a career percentage of 44% and made a total of 178 shots from downtown during his career.
In his time as a student at LR, Bales served as an Orientation Leader, served on the Lenoir-Rhyne Student Section Committee in which he had a hand in starting the first annual “Late Night at the Shu”, and was a student representative with Unaka High School at the Special Olympics and participated in its lunch buddy program.
He also spent time giving back to the Hickory community, serving in multiple basketball clinics in Hickory and his hometown of Elizabethton, participated in the Catawba Backpack Program, March Madness Reading Month and the Jenkins Elementary Fall Festival.
Bales brings a wealth of basketball knowledge and experience as he either ran or played a key role in camps such as the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) Men’s Basketball Camp, the Everick Sullivan Basketball Camp, the University of Tennessee Men’s Basketball Camp, Elizabethton High School Basketball Camp and was a summer league coach for a local AAU team.
