Pleasant Out at Rochester.

Written Sunday April 30th at 12:40 AM
Updated Friday May 5th at 10:35 PM

Rochester Athletic Director Luke Beach just filled their Girls Basketball position with Al Poynter taking over the team now he has to fill the Boys Basketball position as well.

Falcons coach John Pleasant has stepped down after serving nine seasons coaching at Rochester according to Scott Bernstein of State Champs. Pleasant was named the 2012 Class A State Coach of the Year and the 2013 Basketball Coaches Association's Coach of the Year.

Pleasant took his team to the State Quarterfinals in 2013 when they had James Young, whom ended up being at Kentucky for one season and then in the NBA with the Boston Celtics. Young came to Rochester from Troy for his Senior season.

Pleasant has also coached power forward Taylor Perry whom went to Western Michigan to play College Basketball and point guard Paris Pereira. Both of them were on a 20-2 Rochester team that won the Blue, and took out Adams in the district semifinal but they was upset by Orion in the district final in 2012.

Rochester had a rough three seasons since the State Quarterfinal run. They went winless (0-21) in 2014, and went 9-12 the year after. The Falcons were supposed to be one of the favorites in the Blue with the experience and talent they had back but they went 11-11 and had a very disappointing 3-7 in the league finishing fifth out of six teams. Rochester lost in the district final to Stoney Creek after eliminating Utica from the tournament in the district semifinal.

The Falcons will have forwards LaMarko Gulledge, and his younger brother Corey coming back, along with guard Hunter Schlatter. Rochester has a solid Junior Varsity team coming up that was successful under coach Jeff Haney.

Rochester is an interesting job because the Falcons program has the talent and resources to compete. Rochester is a basketball rich town but the Falcons have to compete with their city rivals in Adams and Stoney Creek. The Cougars were a regional finalist this season losing to the eventual State Champion Clarkston while the Highlanders went winless under their former player and former Stoney Creek Girls Basketball Coach Brad Crighton whom coached his first season at Adams.

There has been a lot of rumors that Rochester could keep the job in house. There are three candidates that are great fits to the Falcons program in Haney, Lima Pereira, or Stephan Henning. Haney has coached both Girls and Boys Basketball in Rochester and was the Boys Junior Varsity coach for the Falcons in the balk of Pleasent's era. Pereira, whom is the father of Paris is the long-time freshman coach for Rochester and despite not having Varsity experience he has AAU experience to make up for it. Henning played point guard at Rochester from 2002-2005 and played at Rochester College under Garth Pleasent. Henning has Varsity coaching experience when he coached at Oxford from 2013-2015.

If they go outside the box and do a complete rebuild then it could be very interesting.

Thoughts.

This was a surprise to see Pleasant leave Rochester especially with whom they return next season. The Falcons are in an interesting spot with all the talent back. It will be interesting to see how the talent responds to Rochester having a new coach next season.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story.