New FIU basketball coach Cantens eager to restore roar
When he was a kid, Joey Cantens — who grew up in the area of Coral Way and 117th Avenue — would ride his bike over the bridge until he got to FIU, just a few blocks away.
On Sunday nights, he would sneak into the FIU gym to play basketball on the second floor … until he and his friends would inevitably get kicked out.
These days, nobody’s kicking Cantens out of FIU’s gym.
That’s because on March 27, Cantens, 39, was announced as FIU’s 10th men’s basketball coach — the first one hired by athletics director Scott Carr. Cantens will be asked to turn around a program that has suffered through six straight losing seasons.
But Cantens — for now at least — is undaunted by the long string of losing seasons he is inheriting or the low budget that has historically come along with FIU basketball.
“For me, this is home,” said Cantens, who came to FIU after serving as a junior college coach at Daytona State. “I believe in FIU. I understand the culture and the community. My commitment is to build a program that everyone is proud of.”
As a youth, Cantens attended Belen, Columbus and Miami Christian before signing with FIU. He lasted just one year with FIU (2005-06), however, before transferring to an NCAA Division II school, Eckerd College, located in St. Petersburg.
“I wasn’t athletic enough,” Cantens said when asked why he left FIU.
Cantens, a 6-foot point guard, got into just nine games that season with FIU, averaging 0.4 points on a Sergio Rouco-coached team that went 8-20.
After Eckerd, Cantens served as a graduate assistant at Florida State from 2009-2011, earning a Master’s degree in Sports Management.
From there, Cantens was hired as director of operations at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he met a women’s basketball assistant coach, Mel Thomas, who would later become his wife.
“Our offices were five feet apart,” Thomas said. “We had a large group of young coaches, and we were all very close. Joey and I were friends before anything.”
Cantens remained at FGCU from 2011 to 2014. By 2016, when Cantens got hired to coach pro basketball in Germany, Thomas had given up coaching to travel and support Cantens. In fact, they got engaged on a trip to Belgium during the time he was coaching in Germany.
Thomas, 40, is a former McDonald’s All-American from Cincinnati. She was named the Big East Conference’s Most Improved Player in 2006, and Cantens appreciates her sacrifice — giving up her basketball career to be the the primary caregiver for their two children, Camila, 5, and Luca, 2.
“What a blessing — Mel has literally moved around the world with me,” Cantens said. “She has a competitive spirit, and she turned that spirit into becoming a beautiful mom who is a beast with our kids. She’s the best.”
Thomas said she still loves basketball.
“I see a ball,” she said, “and I can’t help dribble it.”
Even so, Thomas — who works in graphic design — said she is much happier not being a coach in a team setting.
“I train individual boys and girls players, and I get my basketball fix that way,” Thomas said. “Helping young players is my passion.
“I still get the team environment from being around Joey’s teams. I love being at the gym, and our kids do, too. The players at Daytona State were heroes to our kids, and I’m sure it will be the same at FIU.”
Cantens, who is American of Cuban ancestry, is fluent in English and Spanish. His family name, going way back to Spain, was originally Cantenys before it got shortened.
Meanwhile, Thomas has learned to speak Spanish, and she and her husband are raising their children to be fully bilingual.
For Cantens, basketball is truly a family affair. His uncle, Bernie Cantens, played for FIU coach Rich Walker in the 1980s.
In addition, Joey Cantens said his parents are his biggest fans, and they aren’t shy about offering hoop advice.
“After every game, they have their critiques — what I should have done and who I should’ve played,” Cantens said with a smile. “My dad [Gaston] is my hero. He showed me how to be a man and how to work, and that’s why I’ve had success in life.”
