Portland State Athletics has named Barret Peery as its new men’s basketball coach. The announcement was made today by Director of Athletics Valerie Cleary. An introductory press conference for Peery will take place on Thursday afternoon on the PSU campus.
“I am excited to welcome Coach Peery and his family to Portland State University,” Cleary said. “Coach Peery has a great history of being a successful head coach and assistant coach. His vast background in recruiting and proven success coaching make him an excellent fit for the Vikings.”
Peery takes over the Viking program as the 13th head coach in its 56-year playing history, and the sixth since Portland State joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996-97.
Peery most recently was the Associate Head Coach at Santa Clara. He assisted first-year Head Coach Herb Sendek in the revival of the Broncos program as it had its first winning season in four years and placed fourth in the West Coast Conference.
“My family and I are ecstatic about the opportunity to come back to Portland and be a part of the Portland State Vikings,” Peery said. “We realize this is an exciting time at PSU with the construction of the Viking Pavilion as well as the new leadership of Valerie Cleary and her staff.
“Our expectations for Viking basketball are second to none. We feel like we can win championships on the court with great young men who will have an opportunity to graduate from an outstanding university. We know we can put a product on the floor that the city of Portland will want to embrace and be a part of.”
Who could be more ready for the challenge that lies ahead than Barret Peery?
Peery comes to Portland State after two decades of collegiate coaching to lead the Viking program into a future that includes the opening of a brand new playing facility in 2018. One of those previous seasons was as a Viking basketball assistant coach (2002-03).
In addition to Portland State, Peery has been an assistant coach at high-profile programs like Utah and Arizona State, at a Big Sky school; his alma mater Southern Utah, and comes from Santa Clara where he was the Associate Head Coach. He has worked with Head Coaches Bill Evans (Southern Utah), Jim Boylen (Utah) and Herb Sendek (Arizona State, Santa Clara) at the Division I level, as well as Heath Schroyer at Portland State.
Peery had two head coaching stints to great acclaim at the junior college level. He compiled a career record of 178-30 in six seasons at College of Southern Idaho (2002-05, 85-19) and Indian Hills (IA) Community College (2011-14, 93-11). In 2014, Indiana Hills was the NJCAA runner-up, going 34-3 and winning regional and district tiles.
Peery’s teams routinely were among the top scoring in the nation. His 2012-13 squad averaged 97.9 points per game. In three seasons at Indian Hills, his teams went 60-1 at home and reached the number one ranking in the nation.
At CSI, Peery led his team to two national tournaments in three seasons and twice led the nation in scoring. The Golden Eagles placed fourth in the nation in 2006-07. Peery was the Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2007-08 after leading his team to a third straight SWAC title. CSI was ranked number one in the nation for the last four weeks of the regular season.
Peery was an assistant for two seasons at CSI prior to taking over as Head Coach.
In his time as an assistant at Southern Utah (1998-2002), Peery helped lead the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and a 25-6 record.
He also had early coaching stints at Utah Valley and Snow College.
Peery played collegiate basketball at Snow and Southern Utah. He helped lead the Thunderbirds to two conference championships while earning Academic All-League honors and being a team co-captain. Peery was an All-Region and All-State player at Payson High School.
Peery and his wife, Tracy, have four children: daughter, Kennedy and sons, Crew, Whitton and Meyer.
Peery takes over a Viking program that was 15-16 this past season. The Vikings lost five seniors whose eligibility expired. Portland State will play its home games off campus in 2017-18 while the new Viking Pavilion is completed.
Details on Thursday’s introductory press conference will be released soon.
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