Dr. August Mendes enters his first season at Sacramento State as assistant coach in 2025-26.
Since 2011, Mendes has been an experienced basketball professional whose career includes player development, scouting, and basketball operations across various levels of the basketball industry. With a passion for coaching and academics, Mendes provides an innovative high energy coaching style with a winning track record.
A native of Chicago, Ill., Mendes most recently served as the Director of NIL Strategy and assistant coach for the Nike EYBL National Team at Bella Vista College Prep (AZ), a role he began in August of 2024. Under his guidance, Bella Vista posted a 21–6 record, winning Arizona’s first-ever Beach Ball Classic championship, as well as the Nike EYBL Scholastic regular season conference title - the most competitive high school basketball league in the country.
Mendes also helped lead Bella Vista to its first appearance at the Chipotle Nationals tournament. Chipotle National is known as the most prestigious high school event in the country - his fourth overall trip to the tournament during his coaching career. The team closed the season ranked eighth in the nation by ESPN.
His winning track record includes assistant coach and video coordinator at national powerhouse Arizona Compass Prep (AZ) in 2022–23, where the team finished 24–6 and earned a national runner-up finish at GEICO Nationals. The program produced seven Div. I commits that year, including the school’s first McDonald’s All-American Mookie Cook.
Mendes has also served in roles as scout for the Puerto Rican U19 National Team (2022). He has contributed to basketball operations at the NBA Draft Combine (2015–20), furthering his diverse experience at professional levels. A significant achievement for Mendes was being selected as lead coach at the 2019 Jordan Brand Invitational in Taiwan. There, he coached the event’s top 52 collegiate prospects in the country, focused on player development, film study significance, and leadership skill building.
From 2014-19, Mendes was a key part of the coaching staff at Shadow Mountain High School (AZ) under Mike Bibby. During that run, Shadow Mountain captured four consecutive state titles, amassed a 157–21 overall record, and maintained a 72-game winning streak. That includes an undefeated streak at home for six straight years. The program also became the first public school in Arizona history to qualify for the Dick’s National Tournament featuring future collegiate and NBA players.
In 2010, he founded Top of the Chain Basketball LLC, a high performance development company that has served NBA, NCAA, and elite high school athletes. Through Top of the Chain Basketball, he led custom NBA pre-draft training programs, specializing in preparing athletes for peak performance results. His basketball journey began in 2011 at Attack Athletics in Chicago, training under the guidance of Tim Grover at one of the country’s premier athlete performance facilities.
Mendes recently earned his PhD in general psychology (emphasis on performance psychology) from Grand Canyon in 2024. He completed both a master’s degree in education leadership (2014), and bachelor’s degree in physical education (2010) from Arizona.
