New coach, same expectations: Pierre’s Raiders will succeed
NICEVILLE, Fla. (BVM) — Last season, the Northwest Florida State men’s basketball team ended one era and entered another. Former head coach of six years Steve DeMeo accepted a Division I job at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., bringing his successful run as the Raiders’ lead man to a close.
In those six seasons, DeMeo compiled an overall record of 170-27 while leading the team to five straight Panhandle Conference titles, four region titles and a national championship in 2015. Upon his departure, NWF State needed to continue its winning tradition.
Enter Butch Pierre.
Pierre joined the Raiders after spending 30 years at various Power 5 schools. From LSU, to Oklahoma State, to NC State and Memphis, the veteran coach has made his rounds. But his only head coaching opportunity came as an interim head coach for LSU. Now he’ll get the opportunity to continue the Raiders’ perennial success.
“This program over the last 20 years or 25 years has had great tradition,” Pierre said. “Most of the coaches who coached here have had a lot of success here because of the fundamentals and history of this program.”
In his first season, though, the Raiders finished 12-16, ending the season with a 12-game losing streak. But as in most new scenarios, the first year was viewed by Pierre as a learning opportunity. Learning how to bring his Division I expertise and apply them to the junior college realm.
On top of that, he was hired close to the start of the season, so he didn’t get to do a whole lot of his own recruiting. Nonetheless, Pierre liked what he saw from the roster he was given.
“When I recruit, the first thing I expect is guys who play hard and compete at a high level…the next thing is to defend at a high level, be an unselfish person and teammate…guys that have a high basketball IQ, are skilled, love to be in the gym,” Pierre said. “Those are the kind of guys I think we have in this program right now.”
Now doing his own recruiting, Pierre is still continuing to learn coming into this new season. Coming from the high-level Division I ranks, the long-time coach admits that his programs always had, “top-echelon players in America that went on to make money playing this game.”
Now, he’s recruiting guys who are coming to junior college for a variety of reasons, and oftentimes, they don’t have the goal of making it to the NBA. They need a different kind of coaching.
“Guys come for various reasons. They didn’t qualify for DI or they didn’t want to get recruited at a high level, or they played D1 but didn’t play enough or had some type of issue,” Pierre said. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that a lot of time, those guys’ spirit is broken. There’s a lot of things to go about to be successful not only playing this game and that’s basically where I think my strength becomes involved. Making them understand how to make that next step in life and being able to handle adversity.”
With that being said, Pierre believes all of these learning experiences through the first season and up to this moment will widely benefit the team this year. With a crop of his own players joining the Raiders and a newfound knowledge of how competitive the Panhandle Conference is, the second-year coach is ready to bring them back to relevancy.
There’s no better man for the job than Pierre, who learned so much of his successful ways from legendary head coach Tubby Smith. While Pierre was the director of player personnel at Memphis, Smith was the head coach. There, they worked alongside one another daily, both on and off the court.
Pierre made the most of this opportunity, making sure to absorb as much information as he could from the current High Point Panthers head coach.
“He’s somebody that I look up to, and try to be like him. That experience for me was a Godsend,” Pierre said. “I took notes, I critiqued him at practice, in the office, at interviews…He would ask me questions about things he should do and I’m saying ‘I need to be asking you questions about what makes you successful!’”
With the Raiders season slated to begin on Jan. 24, the program seems to be in good hands. It shouldn’t be long before their tradition of winning comes back to the forefront.
