2021 Season Preview

Head Coach Micheal Jones says he has a young, athletic-intelligent basketball team this season that shows a great desire to be competitive. “All our athletes will be exciting to watch. However, there are three key athletes to keep your eye on this season: sophomore Hayden Green and freshmen Demarvion Brown and Jakeese Kemp. These three young men have demonstrated athletic and academic excellence this fall, and we expect more with the start of the competitive season,” said Jones.eping our athletes safe.

PHSC Men's Basketball Program History

The PHSC men's basketball program was started by Bobby Bowman in 1991, who led the basketball program for 20 years. Coach Bowman ended his career with 334 career wins and was inducted into the FCSAA Hall of Fame in 2009.

In 1998, PHSC won its first FCCAA State Tournament and advanced to the NJCAA National Tournament in which the team finished in the elite 8. In 2010, the program switched to Division II status and appeared in the 2011 and 2012 regional tournament for the first time. In the 2015-2016 season, the PHSC men's basketball team finished in the top eight at the Region 10 Tournament. 

Other highlights include:

  • Five State tournament appearances
  • Three Suncoast Conference Championships
  • Two Suncoast Conference Tournament Championships
  • Four-time 'Top 20' NJCAA ranking

The men's basketball program transferred more than 96 players to four-year colleges in conferences such as the SEC, Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, SoCon, MAC, MEAC, PBC, Sunshine State Conference, TSC, ASUN, and the GLVC. Additionally, many PHSC student athletes from the men's basketball program have gone on to play in professional basketball organizations such as the NBA Development League (NBADL) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

Basketball Coaching Staff

  • Portrait Coach Micheal Jones

    Dr. Micheal Jones

    Head Coach

    Dr. Micheal Jones is in his seventh year (73-107 record) as head basketball coach at PHSC after previously serving as assistant coach under Bobby Bowman (2010-11) and James Johnson (2011-12). In the 2015-2016 Season, Jones led his team to the Regional X Tournament where they finished in the top eight.

    Dr.Jones began his athletic coaching career at Challenger K8 (Spring Hill, Fla.) where he coached middle school basketball for four years (2005-07) before accepting a position as assistant junior varsity high school basketball coach for Florida State University School in Tallahassee, Fla. (2007-09).

  • Basketball Assistant Coach Larry Behm

    Larry Behm

    Assistant Coach

    Coach Behm is a native of Central New York. Before joining PHSC, Behm was a successful high school coach for 24 years in Syracuse. His teams won 327 games, including numerous league, New York state sectional and regional championships. In 2009 his team advanced to the New York State Final Four.

    Read More About Coach Behm

    At the start of the 2011 spring semester, after serving as an assistant to Athletic Director and Head Basketball Coach Bobby Bowman, he was named interim head coach. He held that position until June 2011.

    Coach Behm was assistant to Athletic Director and Head Basketball Coach James Johnson for one year and returned for the start of the 2013 season to assist new Head Basketball Coach Mike Jones.

    His duties include recruiting, scouting, practice and game preparation and assisting Coach Jones in the day to day operation of the basketball program.

    Coach Behm has coached a number of players who went on to Division 1 programs. He has worked at several high profile camps and has been a guest speaker at various clinics in the Northeast.

    Coach Behm is member of the New York State Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of New York and the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches

    Coach Behm is a graduate of NMJC and Eastern New Mexico University.

  • Portrait of Coach Nick O'Neill

    Nick O'Neill

    Assistant Coach

    Nick O’Neill was born and raised in California where he played two years of junior college basketball. He transferred to Belmont University in Nashville where he walked on and played one more year and received his B.S. He has been an elementary physical education teacher since 2003.

    Before joining the PHSC coaching staff in 2019, he was the JV and Varsity coach at Genesis Preparatory school in New Port Richey for 10 years. During that time, his teams won four conference championships and had three runner-up finishes. From 2015-2018, he was also the athletic director at the same school. O'Neill also officiated high school basketball for six years in the Tampa Bay Area.