Coaching Staff
Head Coach
Danny Miles
Danny Miles will begin his 42nd campaign at Oregon Tech when the 2012-13 Hustlin’ Owls take to the hardwoods in November. Just last year Miles led Oregon Tech to the 2012 NAIA II National Championship, his third national crown, also earning NAIA Division II titles in 2004 and 2008. The 2012 squad finished the year with a 34-4 overall mark, including an unprecedented four-straight regular season championships, along with a fourth-straight Cascade Conference tournament crown. The 34 victories in 2012 is a new school-record for wins in a season, while the veteran coach has led Tech to 10 seasons of 30 or more wins, including three-straight dating back to the 2009-10 season. Miles marched the Owls to a school-record 65-straight wins at home, the longest at the time in the nation at any level, before an 85-75 defeat on December 29th, 2011. In the last 16 seasons, Miles has led his squads to an overall 458-114 (.801) record with 14 trips to the NAIA Division II National Tournament. Oregon Tech’s tournament record stands at 33-11, including 14-straight wins in first round games. OIT holds the record for most wins at the division II tournament (33), and is tied with Bethel, Ind. for most national championships (3). In his tenure at Oregon Tech Miles has guided 17 men’s basketball teams to the national tournament.
On April 21, 2005 Miles was honored by his alma mater Southern Oregon University as the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award at a dinner held in his honor on the SOU campus. In March of 2001 Miles was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in Point Lookout, Missouri. He was then awarded the Favell Museums Klamath County Western Heritage Award later that spring. In 1996 Miles was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. He also has attained similar recognition as a charter member in both the Southern Oregon University and the city of Medford Halls of Fame for his outstanding athletic fortunes.
More About Danny Miles
Associate Head Coach
Mike Pisan
Mike Pisan begins his 13th season overall in the Oregon Tech program with Coach Miles. Pisan has been an assistant with Miles during both the 2003-04 and 2007-08 national championship seasons. His first season assisting Coach Miles was during the 1978-79 and 79-80 seasons when the Hustlin'Owls earned a trip to the NAIA National Championships in the 78-79 season. He also spent 11 years handling the game analysis on the Oregon Tech Radio broadcasts.
Pisan, who retired from the Klamath Falls City Schools after 30 years as a Teacher and Administrator, is a 1971 graduate of Southern Oregon University. Mike and his wife Marsha have three sons, Kevin, Scott and Jeff and are the proud grandparents of Blake, Ashley and Cade.
Assistant Coaches
Jason de Vries
Jason de Vries enters his third year as an assistant coach for Danny Miles and the 2011 – 2012 Hustlin’ Owls. Jason will assist with the defensive end and will once again focus on rebounding and player development. In his first two seasons, Jason has been part of two teams that have gone 60-10, hold a current home-court win streak of 57, won two conference regular season and tournament titles, advanced both years to the Sweet 16 at the National Tournament, and was also part of Coach Miles’ 900 career win milestone. Jason developed an Excel workbook applying Coach Miles’ Value Point System, which tracks individual and team stats for Oregon Tech and their opponents. His workbook was also provided to coaches who purchased Coach Miles’ Value Point System video that is selling internationally.
Jason played college basketball against the Miles-coached Owls, having graduated in 1992 from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon where he is still in the Linfield record books for career three point field goal percentage. Following Linfield, Jason spent a season as a player/coach for the professional team Tüs Herten in Düsseldorf, Germany. Jason lives in Klamath Falls with his wife, Kelly, and their two sons, Jacob and Spencer.
You can reach Jason at coach.jason.devries@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter @HoopCoachd.
Paul Poetsch
Paul Poetsch returns to the hardwoods in 2011-12, entering his second campaign as an assistant for Head Coach Dan Miles and the Hustlin’ Owls, working with players on shooting techniques and other facets of the game.
Poetsch, recently retired in June 2011, was a school administrator in the Klamath Basin for the past 24 years, spending the last five as the personnel director for the Klamath County School District.
In his playing days Poetsch led the Oregon Community College ranks in scoring for two seasons before moving on to Western Oregon University. As a captain at WOU, Poetsch led the Wolves to a league championship in 1979-80 and a 2nd place finish in the district playoffs, earning 2nd team All-Evergreen Conference accolades.
Poetsch then began his coaching career, beginning at WOU with the junior varsity program in 1980-81. The following year Paul took the varsity boys job at Perrydale High School. In his three years with the Pirates he was named CASCO League Coach of the Year in 1983. In 1984 Poetsch moved to Klamath Falls and coached the Mazama High School girls team from 1985-88 where he was named the Southern Oregon Conference Coach of the Year in both 1987 and 1988.
Paul and his beautiful bride, Fritz, have been married for 27 years and have three children – Garrett (25), Janae (24) and Kailee (19).