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SALT LAKE CITY - Barret Peery, who led the College of Southern Idaho to an 85-19 record in three years as its head coach, has accepted a position as an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Utah.
Peery, the 2007-08 Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) Coach of the Year, led CSI to three straight SWAC championships - including an outright title this year. The Golden Eagles were the No. 1 ranked junior college team in the nation for the last four weeks of the regular season and finished with a 30-2 overall record and a 14-1 league mark.
In 2006-07, CSI went 30-7 under Peery and placed fourth at in the nation. In Peery's first year as the CSI head coach, the 2005-06 team posted a 25-10 record, won the Region 18 championship and participated in the NJCAA national tournament. He spent two years on the bench as an assistant coach at CSI before taking the head job.
In his three years at the helm, Peery placed 23 players in NCAA Division I programs, including all nine sophomores from this year's team.
"This is a great hire for us," said Utah head coach Jim Boylen. "Barret is a quality coach and an outstanding recruiter. He has national recruiting connections, is aggressive and sharp. We want to be a running team and Barret will help us become that. CSI averaged 110 points a game last year."
Said Peery, "It was going to take something special for me to leave CSI and that's how I feel about this job at the University of Utah. I am excited about the opportunity to work with Coach Boylen. I truly believe in what he has going on and his vision for the program."
Peery spent a total of five years at CSI - the first two as an assistant coach. Prior to CSI, Peery was the top assistant at Portland State in 2002-03. He was an assistant coach at Southern Utah from 1998-2002, helping the T-Birds to a 25-6 record and their only NCAA Tournament appearance in 2001-02. His other coaching experience included a year as a graduate assistant at SUU (1995-96) and one-year stints at Snow College and Utah Valley State College.
Peery was an academic all-conference player at Southern Utah, helping the T-Birds to a pair of conference championships.
The 37-year-old Peery is a native of Payson, Utah. He and his wife Tracy have a daughter, Kennedy, and a son, Crew.
