Matt Williams was selected in June 2021 to replace Aaron Anderson, Plona’s right-hand man the past two seasons.  Williams comes to Ottumwa after spending the past four seasons as an assistant at South Plains College (TX), and prior to that, for three seasons at Georgia Highlands College, both NJCAA Division I institutions.

Williams is taking a familiar path to Indian Hills as Plona also spent four seasons as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Steve Green at South Plains before arriving in Ottumwa in 2015.  Just like Plona’s experience with the Texans’ program, Williams helped lead South Plains to multiple trips to Hutch for the National Tournament, including a National Championship in 2018.

“Matt has extensive experience at the highest levels of junior college basketball and has been a part of deep postseason runs at both Georgia Highlands and South Plains,” said Plona.  “I know as well as anybody that there is no better preparation for being a successful college basketball coach than working for Coach Green at South Plains, and Matt’s experience in a similar program run in a very similar way will help him hit the ground running here.”

In addition to Williams’ being a part of four national tournament runs in four years in Levelland, Texas, he also helped Georgia Highlands, under the tutelage of Head Coach Phil Gaffney, to their first three trips to the National Tournament in school history in 2015, 2016 and 2017, with the first two appearances resulting in runs to the Final Four.