Manual’s Jordan wins 2026 Clutch Sports Media Boys Basketball Coach of the Year

There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being a coach at one of the state’s most storied basketball programs, and especially at Manual. 

Success is the expectation for the team that calls Coach Van’s Court home and has more state trophies than any other team in Illinois. The Rams and head coach Marvin Jordan lived up to that expectation to the fullest extent in the 2025-26 season, winning the program’s sixth state championship and leading Jordan to be named Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Boys Basketball Coach of the Year. 

Jordan has coached the Rams for four seasons and led them to at least 21 wins in each of his campaigns at the helm. After back-to-back 21-win seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24, Jordan led the Rams to the Class 2A State Finals in two consecutive years, which was the first time the program had done so since its historic four-peat of state titles between 1994-97. 

A former player at Manual and Niagara University, Jordan navigated the Rams in the first year of the post-Dietrich Richardson era by cultivating new and returning talent against one of the tougher schedules in the state. Manual took on some of the state’s best, including Decatur MacArthur, Lisle Benet and Chicago Simeon, on top of a loaded Big 12 schedule. The Rams, who finished 25-9, then tore through most of the postseason before finishing off gritty wins over Tolono Unity and Quincy Notre Dame to win the Class 2A state title. 

Hear more about Jordan’s season and his career in our interview with him below. Some answers have been minimally edited for clarity.

What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended? 

“It definitely was just the preparation that we put through,” Jordan said. “The plans that I came up with for these guys, day in and day out, for practices, and the hard work and dedication that that group put together and the way that they bought in, I think that was the main thing that I’ve really been just reflecting on the most. And another thing is I'm always looking for things to motivate the guys that are coming next. Not to look so far ahead again already, but there's some guys on our team that did so much for us that didn't get the recognition that they may have deserved. Some of those guys are guys that like if it would have been last year, would have been Josh [Humbles] and Reggie [Postlewaite], who were some of these players. I get more guys like Tahj Tolliver, who a lot of people haven't spoke a lot and I understand that I still got some things that can motivate me to get me back to where we need to be for this team.”

In your mind, what made the team so special this year?

“Just understanding that we never really relied on just that one guy, each night it was different,” Jordan said. “So it was easy to come out and compete with teams without having so much focus on what we would actually end up doing. Having that togetherness was the best thing because again, you never knew where it would come from. You automatically knew that we would have that defense but the offense was kind of tricky for some teams because each and every night, it was somebody different.”

The hard schedule you guys played was a big topic of discussion all season, what went into making it?

“I have a lot of relationships with a lot of schools, I know a lot of people from when I played,” Jordan said. “When I walk in the gym and see familiar faces, one of the best things is having those connections and being able to go and get those bigger games that some schools at 2A wouldn't be able to get. We hang our hats on that a lot and we keep those relationships big. I think the Pontiac [Holiday] Tournament has a lot to do with the way we prepare also, because right away we start the year off playing top state teams like Benet and all of those. That part right there is key to the success that we've been having.”

What’s your coaching background? 

“So I've been coaching [but] not for any high school before Manual,” Jordan said. “I've coached in several tournaments. I've coached a Special Olympics in New York in college but also all of this stuff matters, because it's about you being a leader and coming up with ways to win. Also, one of the things that I did first and foremost was coach for Curley Boo [Johnson] when he first started his camp and I've won the most championships in the history of the camp. But I believe a lot of that stuff carried over because I never really played as a player that thought that I'd be a coach one day. It was just kind of like me stepping into the role and doing what I knew to do. A lot of that coaching already walked me into the pressures of being one so that was a big key to it. But yeah, no place before Manual, as far as high school.”

What helps keep you motivated?

“Just the joy on the kids’ faces and the uplifting of the community,” Jordan said. “I know when we went around here for the south end of Peoria, it's big for the community because now, everybody has something to get hang your hat on. Everybody has something to be proud of. And again, a lot of these kids are from down here and us being the small school in the area, everybody looks at us, and looks over us actually. To be able to be the team that stands out and makes the noise at the end, that means the world to us. Especially myself because again, I've come from here and being able to be here and run things and keep things going in the right direction, it's very important.”

Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory with your players that you’ve had from this past season? 

“I’d say one of the best memories, I think it's a funny story, and this is fresh on my mind, because this is the last thing that I remember,” Jordan said. “When we were supposed to do like a walk through, well not a walkthrough and see, that's where it got misconstrued with the kids. It was supposed to be a practice, a quick, short, light practice before one of the games, but there were travel issues, so we had to get a legit, good practice in before we left. And I got into practice and everybody, all the guys are supposed to be in here stretching and get loose, but the guys had on travel gear and gym shoes, as if it would be a walkthrough, and this was in the postseason. I came in here, I was so focused throughout the day, I've been locking in on game plans and making sure everybody's healthy, checking out some percentage things and all type of things.”

“So I come in here with just a laser focus, but then I see guys like not on that same page, and it was like a blow up,” Jordan said. “But it wasn't necessarily a huge deal, because most of the guys already knew, like guys like Josh and Reggie were just like, ‘I told y’all it wasn't a walkthrough.’ And I was like ‘Everybody get dressed and on the line!’ and everybody flew, it was like ants scattering. Usually, you get some players on any program that resent that or are rebellious to that and are like ‘Oh, we're supposed to be doing a walkthrough, why are we doing this?’ and they didn't do that. That's what let me know that this is one of the teams that I got to lock in on and make sure we keep the camaraderie and we can get it done. That was a big part of what we had going on that mattered the most, that just don't show up on the box scores. For me to get that message across to them in that way, and they responded the way they did, let me know who I was going to battle with.”

What’s a piece of coaching advice you’d give?

“I think it was early on and this was at the start of me being head coach, I was given some advice from a longtime mentor of mine that was just pretty much about any pressures or or any adversity, he was just basically saying to face it as you would because that's the truest way and that's the only way,” Jordan said. “So with that being said, it just was easier for me to come and focus and lock in and trigger some of those things that I had learned to the kids. I mean, it made it so much easier to have somebody in my corner to believe and to have the advice and to have went through this same thing themselves as a former head coach. Just to have advice like that, I've definitely passed it along but things like that are a small thing probably hearing it, but to me, it's major because it's something that I think about a lot.”