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Pasco Boys Hoops Coach Starting To Feel At Home

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By EDDIE DANIELS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Moments after receiving the news that he had been selected as the next coach for the Pasco High boys basketball team, Derek Heard got on the phone and placed a call he had been looking forward to for years.

No, his mother wasn't the first one he called. She was second.

That first call went to Miami Monsignor Pace boys basketball coach Mark Lieberman.

Lieberman has led Monsignor Pace to six consecutive final four appearances and four state titles, including championships the past two seasons, and he was named the 2003 Florida Dairy Farmers' Basketball Coach of the Year.

For three seasons (2003-04 to 2005-06), Heard was right by his side.

"He's my close friend and is probably responsible for me getting that job," Heard said of making Lieberman the first to know. "And then I called my mom."

Heard, 27, was an assistant the past two seasons at Orlando Oak Ridge, while his first high school assistant coaching job came when he spent one season at North Lauderdale Academy before moving to Monsignor Pace.

Heard replaces Poncho Broner, who resigned to pursue his master's degree after coaching the Pirates for eight seasons. The Pirates won the program's eighth district title last season.

Before getting into coaching, Heard played basketball at Florida Southern from 1999-2002, scoring 1,064 points for the Moccasins. He was team MVP during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons and was named the school's Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2001.

At the time, Heard, who also coaches the AAU Florida Rams, had no idea the impact Lieberman would have on him, but he has since seen the benefits.

"Mark Lieberman was probably the one who probably taught me the most about basketball," Heard said. "He just continues to take pride in defense and up-tempo style and forcing teams to do things they don't want to do, attacking the basket.

"That's the kind of style I'm going to have. Just be really solid defensively and forcing teams into turnovers and really look to attack them. Up-tempo and fast pace."

Former Wesley Chapel girls coach and current Saint Leo women's basketball assistant Warren Jones, who grew up next door to Heard in Panama City and attended the same high school, Rutherford High, has no doubt Heard will do fine in his first head coaching position.

"I think he's going to bring it back to glory, not to say that it was down in the dumps," Jones said. "It's going to be a very respectable program. He's a Class A type of guy, so he's going to bring that to his program, kids are going to really respect him a lot for what he can do.

"Once they get into the system and realize what he can bring to the table, I think it's going to be easy for them to buy into the program. And once they buy in, that's the biggest part. I don't think it's going to be a long process with the kids getting into the system. I think it's going to be a very well-organized and well-run program."

Although Heard will be a new face to the Pasco County landscape, he won't be without his own "map of Pasco County." That duty falls in Jones' lap.

"We grew up next to each other, basically grew up with each other our whole lives, so it's going to be great having him close," Heard said of Jones. "Everybody I've talked to already knew Warren and how good a person he is and how well he did with his program over there. He already knows everybody and knows his way around the county, so that's really going to help me out, to get settled in."

Added Jones: "We're not biological, but we grew up in the same house. Blood couldn't make us any closer."

Pirates athletic director Jim Ward joins Jones in his excitement in seeing Heard on the staff.

"We're really hoping that he can take the program to a new level, and we're looking forward to it," Ward said. "He comes in with, not taking anything away from Coach Broner, he comes in with a little different outlook on some things. He brings it like some college coaches do on the Division II level. He's real big on academics and discipline."

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at

(813) 948-4214 or edaniels@tampatrib.com.

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