Coach Ernie Nestor shares his journey from growing up in West Virginia to being a NCAA D1 basketball coach for over 50 years!
The West Virginia native talks about how he got in start as a high school coach before breaking into the college ranks at James Madison University. Wake Forest hired him (for the first of three stints) and he coached Muggsy Bogues before moving across the country to coach at California to reunite with former JMU Head Coach Lou Campenelli. George Mason hired him to be their Head Coach after Rick Barnes left for Providence, Coach Nestor led them to their first NCAA Tournament in school history in only his second season in Fairfax. After GMU he returned to Wake Forest where he coached Tim Duncan, Josh Howard, Randolph Childress, Rusty LaRue, Darius Songaila, Rodney Rogers, and other Wake Forest greats. Once Coach Odom departed for South Carolina he went with him before eventually being named the Head Coach at Elon.
Coach Nestor eventually became a NBA Scout for the New Jersey Nets before accepting a position at Penn State under Ed DeChellis. Frank Haith hired him to be an Assistant Coach at Missouri - which was in the only Power 5 Conference that he hadn't coached at yet. While at Missouri he coached Kim English who is currently the Head Coach at George Mason. The veteran coach reunited with Ed DeChellis at Navy and remained there until he retired in 2017.
The NABC "Guardian of the Game" recipient came out of retirement to coach alongside Brad Greenberg with the Kosovo National Team and when Danny Manning called him about returning to Wake Forest, he returned to Winston Salem.
Ernie Nestor is a living legend and shares phenomenal advice for coaches of all ages!
