Coach Earns Degree 20 Years After Mom's Death

When Tarek Abdelsameia walked across the stage at LA Valley College on June 9, he wasn't just receiving an associate degree. He was honoring a promise two decades in the making.

Abdelsameia had watched countless students graduate during his years coaching high school basketball at Grant in Los Angeles. Now the 38-year-old coach was finally celebrating his own milestone, earning his AA in history with a teaching credential.

His path to this moment started with tragedy. At 19, Abdelsameia lost his mother Sevin to a sudden heart attack during a routine dialysis treatment. His father moved back to Egypt shortly after, leaving him alone to figure out how to pay a mortgage that averaged over $1,600 a month in 2007.

College became impossible. Abdelsameia worked in IT for a logistics company, coached basketball after work, and later got married and had three kids. "Going to school was always on the back burner," he said.

Those weren't easy years. Abdelsameia worked 16-hour days starting at 5 a.m., juggling his job with his passion for coaching. Under his leadership from 2017 to 2025, Grant won two CIF LA City Section Division I basketball championships.

Why This Inspires

The COVID-19 pandemic gave Abdelsameia something he hadn't had in years: time. During lockdown, he enrolled in online classes at LA Valley College and started chipping away at his degree. After resigning as head coach in April 2025, he completed the coursework he needed to graduate.

His mother would have been proud. "She would've forced me to do this a long time ago," Abdelsameia reflected. "It was youthful ignorance, I guess."

Stepping back from coaching also gave him precious time with his children. He watched his 16-year-old son Elijah play basketball at Pacifica Christian, bonded with 18-month-old daughter Isla-Kanayri, and discovered that his 10-year-old son Avery, who has high-functioning autism, taught himself Spanish and Russian by watching videos on an iPad.

Now Abdelsameia is ready for his next chapter. He's coaching college basketball for the first time as an assistant at Pierce College while pursuing a bachelor's degree in history. Graduate school is next on his list.

For Abdelsameia, the degree represents more than career advancement. "Coaching has always been about being the person I needed when I was that age," he said, remembering his own mentor, legendary coach Howard Levine. "I want to be in a space where I can impact people the most."

From a 19-year-old struggling to survive to a college graduate inspiring the next generation, Abdelsameia proves that detours don't mean defeat.