Bert West

"My number one goal as a coach is to touch the lives of the young people I coach. If all I ever teach them is how to shoot, dribble or defend the pick-and-roll, then I've failed. There are a lot of tough things facing our young men today and they need to learn that at some point you have to get away from just being a young man and simply become a man. I try to coach every player from that perspective."
ETBU men's basketball head coach Bert West

"Coach West taught me to overlook traditional basketball in a high intensity environment while also instilling life skills to apply well beyond my playing days. Coach West was more than a coach to me... he was and is my friend."
ETBU Hall of Famer Tony Cutright, who won four state championships at Zwolle, La., under Bert West and led West's 1995-96 ETBU team to a program-record 28 wins

Coach West Up Close

Last season was not a fun time for ETBU men's basketball coach Bert West, whose personality lends itself to fun most of the time.

The 2006-07 Tigers finished 7-18, which matched the program's lowest win total since West's first season following his return as coach back in 2000-01. The season started off with a brutal 0-5 stretch that included

losses to NAIA national tournament qualifiers LSU-Shreveport, Jarvis Christian and Wiley College. The Tigers made a brief run late in the year due to the ability and leadership of two seniors, Chris Isom and Corey Cooper, and the emergence of midseason transfer Josh Hickman in January. But the team's hopes of a third straight conference tournament playoff appearance melted over the final couple of weeks of the regular season.

The disappointment of the season signalled to West that the Tigers needed some help, and they needed it in a hurry. He and his staff hit the recruiting trail hard this past offseason, knowing full well that Isom, who finished as the third-highest scorer in the program's history, was gone and that ETBU would have just three returners with any kind of playing experience in Hickman, who is also the starting tight end on ETBU's football team, and seniors Bryan Whitmire and Carlos Marbot.

What resulted from the long offseason is the largest group of freshmen and transfers in West's eight years back with the program. Over 30 newcomers are on the roster, of all varying sizes and abilities, and the fresh set of faces have created a resurgence of optimism within the program after the disappointment from last season.

Coach West himself feels the freshness, and believes the 2007-08 Tigers -- while being one of his youngest teams ever in his 13 years as ETBU's coach -- will be an exciting bunch to watch and work with this season.

"You never ever really know what to expect going in when you have this much youth and inexperience on the floor," says West, who became ETBU's second all-time winningest coach last season. "But as far as talent goes, we are very excited about what this group brings to our program. It's going to be fun coaching this group because of their potential and we are looking forward to getting things back on track."

West, a graduate of ETBU and native of Arkansas, coached the Tigers from 1991-1997 before leaving for three years to coach at Southern Arkansas University (1997-98) and as Marshall High School girls basketball coach (1998-2000).

He returned to his alma mater in June of 2000 and has since coached the Tigers to an American Southwest Conference East Division championship in 2002-03 and to three ASC tournament appearances in his seven seasons back on the ETBU bench.

West graduated from East Texas Baptist College in 1972 after playing on the Tiger basketball team himself under Coach R. C. Kennedy. After a highly successful high school career that saw him win four consecutive state championships at Zwolle, La., West came back to Marshall and ETBU in 1991 to take over the men's basketball program from retiring coach and all-time wins leader Jim Webb.

The return was miserable at first. West's first two Tiger teams won just 11 games combined the first two seasons before breaking through with a 17-15 season in 1993-94.

That season kicked off a four-year run of winning records for the Tigers, including a school-record 28-5 season in 1995-96. Prior to that season, in 1994-95, the Tigers finished as the highest-scoring team in the NAIA nationally, averaging 102.8 points per game.

Following his sixth season in 1996-97, West accepted the head coaching position at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Ark. After spending one season as the Muleriders' head coach, West returning to East Texas and began a two-year stint as head girls basketball coach at Marshall High School.

His return to ETBU beginning in 2000-01 started off slowly again, as the Tigers struggled to a 7-18 mark in West's first season back. After a 12-12 mark in 2001-02, West coached his best NCAA Division III team to date with a 17-9 mark that included the ASC East Division title. The Tigers' ninth loss of the year, however, came in the semifinals of the ASC Tournament, which ETBU hosted as East Division champions that year.

After a 12-13 finish in 2003-04, West's Tigers returned to the ASC Tournament in 2004-05. A year later, in 2005-06, ETBU finished 14-12 with a second straight second-place finish in the ASC East Division.

West's coaching at Zwolle, La., created records that may never fall in Louisiana high school basketball. Zwolle won four straight Louisiana state championships with West as head coach, a streak that included a 50-game winning streak.

Entering his 14th season at ETBU in 2007-08, West stands second all-time in Tiger coaching wins with 167. That leaves him behind only Jim Webb, who tops the list with 219 coaching victories.

Bert and his wife, Diana, have two children -- Amy, who is married to Gary Fuller, and Brody, who is married to Jaimie. They also have four grandchildren: Caleb, Peyton, Sydney and Presley.

Coach West and wife, Diana

Coach West On...

TIGER BASKETBALL: "Our goal is to be the best we can possibly be every year we step onto the court. There are a lot of things that go into that, including the work that has to be done off the court during the offseason. But our goals never change going in. Young, old, experienced, inexperienced, deep, thin, it doesn't matter -- the Tigers will always expect to win. I believe if you expect to win, then you are not surprised when it happens, and you build confidence. We must get back to the point where we expect to win every time we step on the floor."

RECRUITING: "We go after young men who not only want to play and perform on the basketball court but who want to come (to ETBU) to mature and grow as men. If you go to college and four years later come home not having grown into a young man, then you've wasted that portion of your life. That's our first goal here, to recruit young men who want to earn a college degree and also play the game of basketball at a high level. Contrary to what some people may say today about the college athlete, we believe he can do both well."

COACHING: "My number one goal as a coach is to touch the lives of the young people I coach. If all I ever teach them is how to shoot, dribble or defend the pick-and-roll, then I've failed. There are a lot of tough things facing our young men today and they need to learn that at some point you have to get away from just being a young man and simply become a man. I try to coach every player from that perspective."

LAST SEASON'S FINISH: "We are in no way satisfied with our performance last year. Again I will say that we begin every year with the goal of winning our conference, and when that doesn't happen we are disappointed."

THIS YEAR'S OUTLOOK: "I like the energy, enthusiasm and attitude this team brings. We are going to be very young, but we also have some talent that we just need to coach and bring along to be successful."

EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: "This university holds a special place in my heart. It's my alma mater and a place that is very, very special for students and student-athletes in general."

THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE: "Top to bottom, maybe the toughest league night-in-and-night-out in the nation. It gets better and better every year."

THIS YEAR'S SCHEDULE: "Our conference schedule alone makes it very difficult every year, but we face a couple of teams right out of the gate who played in national tournaments and we will have a really tough stretch again to open the conference. We will need to grow up in a hurry to be successful early on."

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