Decades of Excellence: Rochester College’s Pleasant steps away after brilliant coaching career

Video courtesy of Rochester College.

ROCHESTER HILLS — Sitting back in his office, Garth Pleasant can remember the days of returning to school at 2 a.m., then having to return early in the morning to teach a class.

Pleasant was a basketball coach, an athletics director, a bus driver, an instructor, a mentor, a jack-of-all-trades — and for many years, all of these, at Rochester College.

SWAN SONG: Rochester College men's basketball coach Garth Pleasant has called it a career with the Warriors. Courtesy Photo | Rochester College

He can remember the afternoons in his practice gymnasium, nestled on the backside of the campus of Rochester College — it was Michigan Christian College up until the late 1990s — and the rumble of the Grand Trunk Western tractor trains soaring by en route from the Romeo Ford Plant to Pontiac would try to drown out his voice.

Those were the days.

“I used to do it all,” recalled Pleasant in his office before a practice this season. “Our budget was really small. We didn’t even have an S.I.D. or a trainer.”

For most colleges, the Sports Information Director, or S.I.D., is the guru of all sports media communications at a school. Rochester College didn’t have one of those to handle the media duties up until this school year, nor a game gymnasium or field house, or tons of notoriety. Pleasant’s teams rented out high school gymnasiums for home games and spent most of every season on the road at various small colleges few outside of a particular region have heard of … all for the love of basketball.

If Pleasant wanted his box score in a local paper, he would have to make a call. He would drive his team to various destinations to play games, often in another state. There were seldom post-game press conferences, sparse crowds and a lot of long days and nights.

Pleasant, who began coaching men’s college basketball back in 1972, has seen a lot of changes to the college basketball landscape. In fact, he has seen a lot of changes to the landscape period in the Rochester area and Oakland County overall since his debut.

The small Christian college along Avon Rd. has added a few buildings, a few sports to the athletics department and even a few championship trophies to boot since Pleasant’s arrival. He has done so much for the school and created a small-college power that has not shied away from competition. Rochester College has always played against NCAA Division I, Division II and Division III programs.

Pleasant, whose team finished fifth in the nation in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, has finally called it a career. He coached his last game earlier this month on the campus of Penn State-Fayette, where his Warriors finished up another 20-plus-win season with a fine top-10 performance at the national tournament.

“I told the guys after last season’s (national) tournament that this would be my last season,” recalled Pleasant. “I had thought about it for a while now. But every year I would say that, then end up coming back.”

It was also a promise to his wife that after nearly 40 years on the college sidelines and seemingly being away during six months of the year for games and recruiting trips, he might be home for dinner one evening next winter. The call of duty to travel with his team to Maine, or southern Indiana, or Pennsylvania will be passed along to his assistants.

In today’s era, Pleasant has had help from a competent staff, as son Klint Pleasant and Brian Thrift are very much the right-hand men and will take over the Warriors program next month. Pleasant will stay on as a faculty teacher for a couple more years, but his tenure as men’s basketball coach has finally concluded with its last chapter.

And what a career it has been — a career that has touched so many.

In the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (formerly National Small College Athletic Association), he has produced dozens of fine teams. Last season, Rochester College reached the national semifinals, while in 2009, the Warriors were national runners-up. Four times Rochester College has finished as the national champs, with Pleasant helping cut down the nets, while the school has posted countless top-10 finishes at the national tournaments.

Pleasant, who was inducted into the BCAM (Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan) back in the fall of 2007, won his first national title in 1989 in the NSCAA. He followed that up with titles in 1997, 2004 and 2005, along with runner-up appearances in 1984, 1994, 2000 and 2009.

Earlier this season, Oakland University men’s basketball coach Greg Kampe spoke about Garth Pleasant and his storied career before the OU-Rochester game, and even presented him with keys to a new car, courtesy of many friends throughout the basketball community and family members. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo also spoke on Pleasant’s behalf, sending a retiring coach off with much-deserved praise.

For a coach who has enjoyed little fanfare or moments in the limelight, or even coached a game in his own game gymnasium — he never asked for anything except to coach basketball and develop young men — this is Garth Pleasant’s swan song.

There are 720 career wins for Pleasant, who was honored one final time during the recent USCAA national tournament. His last game was an only-fitting 81-73 victory over Oakwood College in the fifth-place game of USCAA tourney. RC finished a fine 25-8 in Pleasant’s encore season.

That is just a sliver in the grand archives for Pleasant. There are thousands of memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.

For Coach Pleasant, he said he will look forward to watching his youngest son, John Pleasant, coach games at nearby Rochester High next winter. He will miss coaching, but “doesn’t have the energy anymore” to do it full-time anymore.

“I get more worked up for my kid’s games,” admitted Pleasant. “It’s hard just to watch.”

Pleasant’s voice won’t be drown out by any more trains — those tracks have long since been silenced and torn out, replaced by a bicycle trail — and there will be no more late night road trips with a team of players being woken up by Pleasant on a bus after a in the middle of the night.

Garth Pleasant has retired from coaching, but the game of basketball will never leave him.

(Dan Stickradt is Senior Editor and Publisher of www.northoaklandsports.com and the Stickradt Media Group. He can be reached at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com.)

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Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Rochester College, Where Are They Now?