Pete Pena has been coaching in Pensacola since 1979, and he's not slowing down.

For the past 16 seasons, he's been the head basketball coach for Pensacola State College, and this year was named South Atlantic District Coach of the year for leading to the regional championship and a trip to the national tournament.

Pete, thank you so much for joining us.

It's a pleasure, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

So I want to talk about your your long, impressive career.

But let's start by talking about what you just did, which is win the regional championship for PNC for the first time since 1993 and a trip to the national tournament.

When did you realize that this group was a special group?

I think it was really early.

I think what happens with a basketball season, as long as it is, you start to gauge a little bit of what is our potential, what can we be if we really get going and improve?

Now, improvement happens when you have quality people that you're working with.

We have a quality group of guys that we had and we said, okay, hold on, we have something special here.

If we keep getting better.

And we did.

I think our kids were just extremely, extremely unselfish with one another, really liked each other, which allowed us to make improvements in certain areas that allowed us to become the team that we we became.

Yeah.

When you look at the roster compared to the other Panhandle schools, not not big name type guys, not guys that came from big deep ones or definitely go into big deep ones.

So.

So what was it?

And it was a balanced team.

What was it about this group that was able to be better than than those teams?

Yeah, we were very balanced.

Everybody had a role that they understood.

Everybody knew that we can't win basketball games in this league and in this conference with just you and you.

It takes the contribution, the contribution of all five of us, of all seven of us, all eight of us.

And everybody understood what their contribution was.

So that made things really, really good.

And that excited us as a coaching staff, because we realize now, Steve, that, you know, anything is possible if you guys really understand that together we can do this.

And they did.

And that's what made it a, a really enjoyable year is what it did.

Yeah.

You got the end up getting the third spot, out of the conference into the state tournament, basically a play in game.

And you had to win four games and you went on that four game run, to win the regional state championship, which is phenomenal.

What did you see specifically in that run in the tournament?

Because you have to certain things have to happen for you to go on a run like that.

What allowed that to happen?

What did you see?

What's happening?

We never really got out of our element.

We really were able to stay very tough, very physical, extremely unselfish offensively, but really, really played great, great defense the whole way through.

So I saw some of the video and I know, when when you had one of the emotions, there was definitely some emotions coming out for you.

What were the emotions like for you after being able to achieve this?

The emotions were for the kids, for for the guys.

I mean, we returned three players.

We had more freshmen, but these are the three players that I wanted back and I wanted to build from.

It was Dylan Clone, it was Demetri Clark, it was Isaiah Sutherland, and their leadership and loyalty was absolutely outstanding.

It just put everybody else in line.

So winning that, selling them on.

Hey, come on, we'll be back and do this thing better.

Just the, just the happiness of of winning that thing with those three guys meant the world to me.

And it was just, you know, Isaiah we got when he was 17 years old, Demetri Clark, who will sign a Division one scholarship.

If you wouldn't have given me a glass of water a year ago for this kid.

These are just guys that just kept getting better, better and better.

Dylan Cullen.

And then all of a sudden, we had a couple of other sophomores come along and and Amarion Savage, who did an unbelievable job.

Will Vasser now we formed a nucleus of and it gave our guys coming off the bench.

This is our standard.

This is how we play.

This is how we're going to go do this.

And Steve, really honestly, it was just, it was about as enjoyable a year.

If it would have ended at the state tournament, it still would have been.

But all of a sudden you get a break here or there and here we are.

Phenomenal.

Run.

All right, so now we talked about what just happened.

Let's go back now.

You grew up in New York City like I did.

So where did your love of basketball come from?

I had an outstanding high school basketball coach at Selection High School in New Rochelle.

Who constantly he.

It was a solution was a Catholic school.

He was a brother.

Which is the step before you become a priest.

And Brother Jim just gave me so much love of the game because I put I saw how much he put into it, how precise and detailed oriented he was, and when my high school days ended, I wasn't good enough to play anymore.

But I knew I didn't want to get rid of this feeling.

I didn't want to get rid of this love that I had for this game.

So then you become a sponge, and I became a sponge with my high school coach, who I thought was outstanding, and then everywhere else.

But, you know, in New York City, depending on where in New York City the game of basketball is, is the love of the city.

This is what we this is who we are and what we are.

So, you know, you became educated just by the media, the media questioning things that happened really, really educate you.

As far as, okay, let's look at things from a different standpoint on different things.

And the hardest critic was, was me on myself.

When I started coaching.

Well, that started, when you came to Pensacola State in 1979 as an assistant coach.

How did that come about?

Chip?

Bo's got the job here, and I owe Chip.

So much.

And we met in Miami when he was at Miami Dade, and he said, come on up and be my assistant.

And when I came to Pensacola, my whole life changed.

I finished my education.

I met my wife.

Chip taught me how to be a college basketball coach.

And I realized how much of the love that I had for Pensacola Junior College, and the love that I had for basketball.

So, that's where it began.

And I am indebted to every body that I came across.

So you had two stints, at, at PJC at the time, and then you got your first head coaching job at a Catholic high school.

You were there for, for ten years.

What was that like, that experience?

I loved every single minute of it.

I, I still, you know, when we won the state championship a couple of weeks back, I heard from so many of my former players, and they were so proud of me that I it was just I felt great, because of all those times.

And I told those guys all the time, I wish I was the coach for you guys back then that I am today, because we all, we all get better hopefully as we do our jobs.

But it was outstanding.

My years at Catholic has left me with friendships, relationships that I will treasure for the remainder of my life.

So you did that for about ten years.

You then you came back to PJC, but it was as a volleyball coach.

So.

So why volleyball?

It was funny because our ad at the time was Don Perry, and he thought that Paul Swanson was going to be moving on very quickly.

So he said, Pete, come on, you could be our volleyball coach, set our program straight.

And I said, coach, volleyball.

He goes, no, no, no, it's okay.

You'll learn.

You'll learn pretty quick.

But I want you to set a standard for that program.

And then in a year or two when Paul leaves, you'll be able to step into basketball.

It'll be easier for me to do so.

Well, that became ten years later, but I was my wife's assistant on the softball field, and and I heard from so many of those softball players a couple of weeks ago when we did this thing.

Yeah, it was really, it was really great.

But you sit there, Stephen, you miss the game that you love so, so much that it was almost agonizing.

Brenda would say to me, sometimes my wife would say, why do you torture yourself going to all the PJC games?

And I can't help myself.

It's what we do.

Okay.

But then it was delayed.

But eventually it happened in 2010.

You get named Paul left, and you and you get named the new head basketball coach at PJC.

What did that mean to you at the time?

It meant so much.

And I thank Doctor Meadows so much for that because I walked into his office and I said, Doctor Meadows, I can do this job, I want to do this job.

And he gave me the opportunity of a lifetime as far as I was concerned.

So, I was really, really fortunate.

And now here we were, and I, I've wanted to coach at two places since I've lived in Pensacola.

I did once at Pensacola Catholic, and now I'm home.

And, you know, a lot of people use this job as a stepping stone to get to the next level.

Pensacola is home for me, and this is the only place I wanted to be.

So.

So what have you loved so much about being able to run this program?

Well, it's just that it's important to the city of Pensacola.

I look at Pensacola State College and what it's done so much.

It has done so much for so many people in this community that people may not understand that this place has been so special to the entire city, but what has really made it unique for me is Doctor Meadows said, you run our program, and I've been able to do it with the right people, with the people that I think would make Pensacola proud, would make our school proud.

And that's been absolutely special for me.

Yeah.

You've held your own, on the court, but then also 96% graduation rate for people that have been in your program for two years, you know, how have you been able to make that such a focus?

Well, we we really emphasize that because I truly feel like I have a response ability with our kids.

I look at our kids and I go, listen, you, we have got to get you ready for when you leave here academically and athletically.

And I take those things hand in hand.

So, you know, with us, it's how you carry yourself off the court, how you carry yourself in the classroom and how you carry yourself.

On the basketball court.

The basketball part is the easy part, because that's their love.

That's what they want to be able to be successful.

And the other things are a little bit of a fight sometimes, but they are what they are.

Well, in terms of being on the court, the Panhandle Conference is incredibly tough year in, year out.

I mean, can you kind of explain just how difficult it is to find success in the Panhandle Conference?

This conference is filled with outstanding players and outstanding coaches.

Chipola North West, Tallahassee, Gulf Coast, all these people look at these.

The head coach at Chipola was the head coach at the University of Tennessee, was the head coach at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Head coach at Northwest Florida, has been an assistant coach at Saint John's.

This whole league is filled with experience, great players, great facilities, great opportunities that you you have really you have really got to do your homework on and off the court, film preparation and everything to get ready.

But the challenges are so large.

But I love that.

I mean, this is exactly what we signed up for.

Of course, the landscape of college sports has changed a lot.

You know, how much has coaching changed?

How much have you kind of adjusted yourself?

I don't I don't know that I, you know, Steve, it has changed incredibly because now somebody that was a great recruiter, that's taken out of the ballpark because now it's the money.

It's how much money can you offer?

How much money is this?

And now with us, we still have that need that our kids need us to get to where they're going.

So now it's like, okay, let me help you get to where you want to go.

And this is our stepping stone.

This is what we do.

And be honest with you, Dimitri Clark is is the prime example of all of that.

Steve.

Yeah, I came from Switzerland and, you know, a lot of potential, but then you've kind of helped develop that now.

Yeah, we're proud of them.

But but listen, all of us can do what we do and help and instruct.

But if the young man doesn't have the work ethic, then it's not going to happen.

All right, so they named the court after you, in 2023, which is cool in itself, but especially if you're still coaching.

So what?

How neat is that what the experience like to be still coaching and the court.

It's those people on that.

Well it says Joe Ambers Lee and he's really the key to to all of that.

And Joe and I've been friends for a long, long time.

I don't have the words to express.

We played softball together, so he knew the type of person I was.

He knew the type of competitor I was.

And we've been friends for a such a long time that, you know, I really pitched Joe, get your, you know, let's get your name on the court.

And I did not know that behind my back.

He said, I'll do it as long as Pete's name is with me.

Well, obviously very deserved.

Everyone here knows that.

Well, you've been doing this a long time, Pete.

Is the passion still there?

Obviously, it's still there right now.

That's still there to keep going.

You know, for, extended time.

Yeah.

Every time I get home and I tell my wife, I go, well, I don't know, she she says, okay, we'll wait for tomorrow.

And then tomorrow she knows that it's different.

I you know, Steve, I always gauge this.

I always said the day that I don't want to go out to practice anymore, that will be the sign that tells me it's time to go and I still love practice or Pete, it's been, enjoyable to watch you all these years.

And, thanks for spending a little bit of time.

Thanks so much for having me.

I truly appreciate it.