May 20, 2025
New Ferris State men’s basketball coach Pietrack says he’s a ‘DII lifer’ looking forward to building champions
Ferris State University introduced Bobby Pietrack, a self-proclaimed “DII lifer” who has won an impressive 72 percent of his games, to be the new men’s basketball coach.
Pietrack was introduced at a press conference on Tuesday and said Ferris State has an excellent athletic tradition, top-notch facilities, and a culture of building champions.
“When you walk around campus and you see the ‘We build champions’ logo, and if you’re a basketball coach or any kind of coach who has had success, you think, ‘Great! I’m going to be a fish in the water here.’ I can’t wait to get started!” he said.
Pietrack most recently served as the head coach at NCAA DII power Fort Lewis College in Colorado from 2015-24, leading the Skyhawks to three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season championships, three RMAC Tournament titles, five NCAA D2 Tournament appearances and an average of nearly 23 wins per season.
Pietrack posted an 189-75 overall record with a 72 percent winning percentage during his tenure at Fort Lewis and ranked among the top 10 DII head coaches.
He takes over for former Bulldog head coach Andy Bronkema, who recently accepted the head coaching position at NCAA Division I Central Michigan following 12 seasons leading the Bulldogs.
Athletics Director Steve Brockelbank said not only is Pietrack a successful as a coach at the Division II level, he can build upon an already strong program.
“We have a fantastic history in terms of men’s basketball here at Ferris State,” Brockelbank said. “We found someone who we’re really excited about, who can come in and carry on this fantastic tradition of men’s basketball here at Ferris State.”
Pietrack said he accepts the responsibility of taking the reigns of a respected program.
“I understand what a great program this is,” he said. “I know what a responsibility it is to be head coach at Ferris State. I welcome it and look forward to the expectations and embrace them.”
He said his focus will be on producing champions - in the classroom, in the community and on the court.
“We will recruit student athletes who have a desire to get a degree and better their lives while playing basketball,” he said. “Being a state institution and having state funds, I think it’s incredibly important that we’re not wasting those. They’ll be no mercenaries coming to play ball here. They will be student athletes who really care about their grades.”
Along with his success on the court, Pietrack's teams at Fort Lewis also captured the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award six times and he graduated nearly 90% of his players at the Western Colorado institution.
His overall team grade point average was above a 3.0 and 27 student-athletes garnered RMAC All-Academic accolades in his tenure. His squads were also active in the community, hosting events such as an elementary reading program and free Sunday clinics.
Known for his strategic game planning, championship mindset and building a family culture, Pietrack elevated Fort Lewis to national prominence in his nine seasons as the program's head coach. His leadership resulted in several record-breaking performances, multiple conference championships and a legacy establishing the program as a national contender in D2 basketball.
Pietrack boasts the fifth-best all-time career winning percentage in RMAC history and guided his squad to a 106-26 home record in Durango, Colorado. He became the fastest coach in NCAA history to win 50 home games and the fastest in NCAA DII history to 50 overall wins, doing so in only 57 games. He also was the quickest in RMAC conference history to 50 league victories and the fastest coach in Fort Lewis history to win 100 games.
Pietrack's final team in 2023-24 ranked among the nation's top five squads with a 29-4 overall record, capturing the RMAC Tournament Championship for the second consecutive year and reaching the South Central Regional Semifinals.
His 2022-23 squad also went 29-4 and won both the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament crowns while finishing seventh in the nation. His final two teams both set a school record for most wins in a season. The 58-8 combined record from 2022-24 was the nation's second-best overall mark in the period.
While at Fort Lewis, Pietrack led his squad to 19 wins or more six times, including five times with 24 or more victories. His first team in 2015-16 went 28-4 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament while winning both league regular-season and tournament titles.
Pietrack was honored as the 2024 Red Auerbach National Collegiate Coach of the Year and was a two-time South Central Region Coach of the Year winner and National Association of Basketball Coaches National Coach of the Year finalist in both 2016 and 2023. He also claimed the RMAC Coach of the Year honor in 2016 and was a six-time HoopDirt.com National DII Coach of the Week.
During his time at Fort Lewis, Pietrack's teams were ranked in the NABC Top 25 poll 70 times, including 31 consecutive weeks from 2022-24. The Skyhawks climbed to as high as second in the nation in 2024 and finished the 2015-16 season ranked number four nationally.
Five of his teams concluded the year ranked among the nation's top 25 in the final poll. His teams also posted the best record in the South Central Region three times in his career and five times reached the RMAC Tournament Championship Game.
Pietrack played collegiately for the Skyhawks and earned a bachelor of arts degree in exercise science from Fort Lewis in 2004 along with a master's degree in human performance from Fort Hays State in Kansas.