Episode 97: He coached 720 wins and four national championships ... and not one of them was a home game (Coach Garth Pleasant)
- Author
- The Christian Chronicle Podcast
- Published
- Thu 14 Nov 2024
- Episode Link
- None
Coach Garth Pleasant (Horton Road Church of Christ, Jackson, Michigan) is one of the winningest college basketball coaches of all time (720 wins, 19 national tournament appearances and four national championships at Rochester Christian University, Rochester Hills, Michigan, over 38 years).
In all that time, Coach Pleasant and his teams never played a single home game ... because they didn't have a home court.
In this episode, Coach Pleasant, who is also a veteran Church of Christ preacher for more than five decades, answers whether he would choose coaching or preaching...and why.
He shares both his philosophy and practice of coaching that made him successful by his own standard: Transforming the lives of young men into Christians and citizens.
Coach Pleasant also touches on:
- The current state of college athletics in the age of name-image-likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal (and how it affects private Christian schools like Rochester).
- How a greater dependence on intercollegiate athletics revenue is changing Christian college campuses.
- How the gospel he preaches (and how he preaches it) matured and seasoned over many decades in the church.
Link to Bobby Ross Jr.'s Christian Chronicle profile on Coach Pleasant (Sept. 20, 2024)
Link to the film documentary, Coach: Make the Bigtime Where You're At
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