On May 5, 2008 College of Southern Idaho Athletic Director Joel Bate announced Steve Gosar as the 15th head basketball coach in the storied program’s history. The 2012-13 campaign will be Gosar’s fifth season as head coach and eighth overall at CSI.
Gosar recalls his first trip to CSI as a recruiter for Portland State, "I remember just thinking to myself - ‘What a special, special place.’ It was like no place I’ve ever been. And I thought if I’d ever be so lucky to have the honor to coach here, how blessed I would be."
Blessed indeed.
The 2010-2011 season was one of the most memorable ones in Golden Eagle history. Finishing 33-4, the Golden Eagles won the Scenic West Athletic Conference regular season title, the Region 18 Tournament and ended a 24-year drought of national championships by winning the school’s third NJCAA Basketball Championship. Along the way, Gosar earned Region 18, District 1 and NJCAA Coach of the Year honors as well as being honored as the Outstanding Coach of the national tournament.
Guard Pierre Jackson was named SWAC Player of the Year, Region 18 Tournament MVP, NJCAA National Tournament MVP and NJCAA Player of the year. He is the first CSI player to win all four awards in a season. Kenny Buckner was named first team all-region and was named to the national tournament team. Eagle High School (Idaho) standout Mitch Bruneel was named to the all region team and the national all-tournament team. Point guard Darius Smith was named all region. Shooting guard Jerrold Brooks was named all region and made the Region 18 all-tourney team.
Last season, Gosar led the Eagles to a Region 18 Championship and its 22nd trip to Hutchinson, Kansas.
In his four seasons as a head coach, Gosar has compiled a 106-30 overall record. As a Golden Eagle assistant, Gosar was part of a three-year win-loss record of 85-19, including three SWAC Conference Championships and two trips to the NJCAA National Tournament. The 2007-08 CSI team finished 30-2 and was ranked #1 in the nation for the first time in 13 years.
During the eight years that Gosar has been a part of Golden Eagle basketball, the program has had six All-Americans, 23 all-region selections, four Region 18 Tournament MVPs and has helped 44 players move on to continue their education and play at four-year universities.
Prior to CSI, Gosar was an assistant at Portland State for Head Coach Heath Schroyer and was key to the team’s improvement. He helped recruit a class that was ranked by collegeinsider.com as the top recruiting class in the Big Sky. With those recruits, the team earned the distinction of being one of the top three turnaround programs in the country in 2004-05.
The Vikings finished the 2002-03 season 5-22 and improved to 11-16 in 2003-04. In Gosar’s last season at PSU, the Vikings posted a 19-9 record, the best ever in the history of the school as a Division I program. Portland State also won the Big Sky Conference regular season title, the school’s first men’s championship title since becoming a NCAA Division I program. Two players off that team earned conference and national accolades. Will Funn was the NCAA Division I national assist leader and Seamus Boxley garnered Big Sky Player of the Year honors.
Before joining the Vikings, Gosar spent two seasons working for head coach Steve McClain as a graduate assistant at the University of Wyoming. Those two years, the Cowboys won back-to-back Mountain West Conference Championships, including the school’s first outright conference championship in the last 20 years. The 2002 Wyoming team made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a first-round win over Gonzaga.
Originally from Pinedale, Wyo., Gosar played his collegiate ball at Wyoming, earning a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology. Gosar is married to Lu. They have three boys - Jake, Jaxon and Jace.
