The prestigious New York Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association has named Indulis Ray Raņķis 2009 All-Met Men’s Division III Coach of the Year.

He was also awarded Coach of the Year honors by the Atlantic Region National Association of Basketball Coaches and the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC).

The awards were announced in April and March, respectively.

Raņķis, in his 26th season at CUNY’s Baruch College, is the longest-serving men’s basketball coach in CUNYAC history. Baruch recorded a perfect 13-0 record in the regular season and a berth in the 2009 conference championship game.

This season Raņķis coached the Bearcats to a 23-6 record and the program’s third appearance in the NCAA Tournament. His teams have won nine CUNY North Division Championship titles.

A 1970 graduate of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, Raņķis played college basketball for Lehman College where he was selected First Team All-CUNYAC and inducted into the Lehman College Sports Hall of Fame.

Raņķis also is a 25-year veteran player and coach for the New York Latvian basketball team Rakte, which has won 10 titles in the American Latvian Association’s “Finālspēles” tournament. Raņķis twice won the Visvaldis Melders Memorial Award as the tournament’s outstanding basketball player as well as has received the Imants Štāls Memorial Cup for outstanding basketball contributions on and off the court. In 1993, he was inducted into the Latvian Sport Hall of Fame for achievements in sports outside of Latvia, receiving the Latvian Sports Council’s “Lielā nozīme” award.

Raņķis, along with his wife and two children, resides in New Rochelle N.Y. He also serves as associate athletic director at Baruch and starts the 2009-2010 basketball season with 367 career victories.

Coach Indulis Ray Raņķis talks to his Baruch College players during a break in a game. (Photo courtesy of Baruch College)