Bart Valentine Court

After mentoring hundreds of athletes at the high school and college level over a 36-year career — 13 years of which were spent at Warner Pacific — varsity men’s basketball coach Bart Valentine ’75 announced his retirement from coaching. in Januar y. He will continue to teach mathematics at the college.

As a tribute to Valentine, Warner Pacific College will officially rename the floor in C.C.Perry Gymnasium“BartValentine Court”following a restoration of the gym floor this summer.The floor will be sanded, refinished, and repainted in time for fall athletics.

“My focus has never been on winning games,” said Valentine, 58. “My desire has been that my athletes would learn lessons through our program that would make them successful in life.”

Warner Pacific recruitedValentine in 1999 as athletic director and basketball coach to reinstate its intercollegiate athletics program, after its closure in 1992. Starting with four sports in 1999, the program grew to eleven sports by 2008.

From 2006 to the present,Valentine’s basketball teams have captured or shared the Cascade Conference regular season championship twice, won the conference tournament once, and made six consecutive trips

to the NAIA Division II national tournament.Valentine was the 2006 Cascade Conference Coach of the Year. In 2009, he stepped down as athletic director, but continued to coach.

“Bar t Valentine has ser ved as an example to our entire campus community in the ways he embraced Warner Pacific College’s urban mission,” said Warner Pacific College President Andrea P.Cook,Ph.D.“Bart is a great coach and an exceptional role model. He has not only made his mark on our campus, but more importantly, on the lives of the young men he has coached and mentored.”

Valentine says he is proud that Warner Pacific’s athletics pro- gram has allowed a wide range of athletes, across all sports, to pursue the dream of a college education.

“The real payoff is seeing a young man or woman receive their diploma at graduation, knowing that without athletics, it probably wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

To make a donation toward the cost of refurbishing the gym floor, contact Kevin M. Bryant,Vice President for Institutional Advancement and External Relations, at 503.517.1220.