Bob Pietrack signed a three-year contract Thursday to remain the head coach of the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team.
The FLC Board of Trustees approved Pietrack’s contract at a meeting last Friday. He signed the contract Thursday. It will pay the coach a base salary of $72,000 per year and comes with incentives for conference and post-season success.
“It’s not about what you have but who you have,” Pietrack said. “With our basketball program right now, from the coaches and players to the support we have, we have a lot, and I’m thankful and looking forward to a very bright future.”
Pietrack served as the interim coach during the 2015-16 season after the retirement of longtime head coach Bob Hofman. He was given full head coach status for the 2016-17 season but had coached the previous two seasons on a year-to-year basis. After unprecedented success for a new head coach, Pietrack received interest from other institutions, including teams within the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
“It was done to keep him,” FLC President Dene Kay Thomas said. “We love him. We want him and made that plain. This is the result.”
When it came to considering other jobs offering more money than FLC, Pietrack’s commitment to the Skyhawks outweighed more lucrative deals. Pietrack was a player at FLC and immediately began his coaching career under Hofman. Coaching his alma mater inside Whalen Gymnasium, where he first met his wife, Lauren, is his dream job at the Division II level.
“Loyalty is a big deal,” he said. “We talk about it with players all the time. We do what’s best for the program, and we practice what we preach.
“It’s been a special journey for me being a walk-on to team captain to assistant coach to associate head coach to head coach. Now to have an opportunity like this to continue to establish us as an elite Division II program, I’m so blessed and thankful to a lot of people.”
In two years since being promoted from associate head coach to head coach, Pietrack has led the team to the two best seasons in program history. The Skyhawks won the 2016 RMAC regular season and tournament championships. The team has reached the second round of the NCAA South Central Region tournament each of the last two years.
Pietrack amassed an overall record of 54-11 in two years as head coach and a 37-7 mark in the RMAC. He was the 2015-16 RMAC Coach of the Year and National Association of Basketball Coaches South Central Region Coach of the Year. He also was a finalist for the Red Auerbach National Coach of the Year and NABC Division II Coach of the Year awards.
Pietrack had the best start for a men’s basketball head coach through the first 50 games at an RMAC school, going 43-7. Mike Dunlap at Metropolitan State held the mark previously at 42-8 during the 1997-99 season.
The 28 wins and 19 conference wins in his first season were program records, and the team finished the season ranked No. 4 in the NABC national rankings, the highest ranking in school history. Under Pietrack, the Skyhawks won 30 consecutive home games before seeing the streak come to an end Feb. 17 against No. 22 Colorado Mines.
Pietrack also found himself in elite company after his first 42 games as head coach with the best record in NCAA men’s basketball history at 37-5, topping names such as Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim as well as Midwestern State’s Nelson Haggerty, who all went 36-6 through their first 42 games.
FLC was ranked in the top 25 all but two weeks during the 2016-17 season, ending the year at No. 23 in the national poll. “I’ve had a chance to reflect on the success,” Pietrack said. “I’m so thankful to all the players. They’re the ones that make the ship sail. When you have wonderful players who care about the school and program, that’s when something special happens, and I hope it’s just the beginning of a very special time with FLC basketball.”
Pietrack’s new contract will provide incentives for such success as well as rewards for the team’s academic achievements. The contract provides awards of $1,000 for RMAC regular season and conference tournament championships, being selected as a RMAC or South Central Region coach of the year and for each game won in the national tournament. He can also earn $3,000 for winning a national championship and $500 for reaching the national tournament. He may also make up to $30,000 for team summer camps annually if the summer camps produce revenue of at least that amount following expenses.
Pietrack played for four years at FLC and was named a team captain and team MVP during the 2003-04 season. He spent 11 years on Hofman’s coaching staff before his promotion.
“I am just very excited about us having the contract signing this morning,” Thomas said. “It recognizes Bob Pietrack’s 15 years of success as a coach and two years of tremendous success as head coach. We look forward to many more years to come.”
Pietrack spurned other offers to remain the head coach of the Skyhawks. Thomas credited his loyalty to the campus and his professionalism for giving him a rare multi-year contract.
“We’re allowed a very limited number of three-year contracts,” she said. “It’s important recognition of his importance to the college.
“I am extremely proud of him. He does what he’s supposed to do and does it right. He’s very concerned about academic success. He’s a players’ coach. I watch him and his body language, and it’s so much fun to see how he manages the team.”
Pietrack is from Eagle and played at Eagle Valley High School. Pietrack’s wife also attended Fort Lewis College and serves as the college’s cheer and dance coach. The two had a daughter, Ella, last summer.
“This is by far home to us,” Pietrack said of Durango. “When considering other offers this summer, nothing compared to staying in Durango. We have family and friends here. The support we get from this community, this is the place we wanted to be and hope to be for a long time.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
