The Pioneer men’s basketball team has taken it upon themselves to come together and prepare for the fall season while the university is conducting a national search for a new head coach.
Coach Will Biggs, who has led the Pioneers to 233 victories and nine winning seasons, announced his retirement last April after a career of 16 straight seasons. Biggs has been involved in the East Bay basketball community for more than 30 years. Prior to his career at CSU East Bay, Biggs has coached at James Logan High School and served as the head coach at Ohlone College for two seasons.
In 1997, Biggs joined CSUEB as the 7th head coach to the men’s basketball program.
Biggs will retire as the longest tenured coach in Pioneer history and holds the record for the team’s winning percentage (.514), according to CSU East Bay’s athletic website
Junior Kenneth Farr informed The Pioneer that for some athletes, it is hard to stay on top of their off-season training without a head coach. However, the Pioneer basketball team is choosing to make sure they are still making an effort to stay in shape for the fall season.
“Without a head coach, there’s not really someone there to organize things, so we’re taking it upon ourselves,” he said. “This off-season we’ve been trying to do something new, everybody is kind of doing their own off-season workout, and then we get together and play once, maybe twice a week.”
Not many athletes on the team have been through the process of getting a new coach at a collegiate level, Farr said. The team views their current situation as a strengthening process to prepare themselves for the upcoming season.
“It’s definitely made us stronger,” he said. “With a new coach a lot of things are subject to change. We have done a really good job in coming together and saying ‘guys, we need to work hard this off-season,’ so we can come back in the fall and show whoever gets this job, that we’re ready to compete with them.”
The Pioneer men’s basketball team is not the only area Coach Biggs brought success to at CSUEB. As a teacher in the classroom, Coach Biggs brought learning to the forefront by helping his kinesiology students understand the value and merit of becoming a physical education teacher and impacting children’s lives, said Assistant Coach Darren French. On the court, Coach Biggs was always honest and fair.
“He demanded your best, but he always gave you the freedom to perform to your potential,” said French.
Following his retirement, the university immediately commenced searching for the new head coach of the men’s basketball team. The application process is currently ongoing and the program has not yet set their eyes on a potential candidate.
“Coach Biggs has been doing this for a long time,” Farr said. “I think he made the decision in which he feels is best for him. And so, I’m not going to be sad because I know he’s happy and he knows he made the right decision. If he’s happy, I’m going to be happy for him.”
