Demetrius Poles became the interim head coach for the Rowan women’s basketball program in 2019-20 and promptly led the Profs to the 2020 NJAC Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
During the championship season, the Profs went 25-4 and 16-2 in conference play to earn the top seed in the league tournament. In addition to winning the school’s seventh league title and first since 1998-99, Rowan achieved its highest national ranking of the year, at 18th in the WBCA Poll in March. For his efforts, Poles was named the NJAC Coach of the Year and the D3Hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
Poles was named the interim head coach in September 2019, upon the retirement of long-time coach Gabby Lisella, after serving for three years as an assistant coach with the team.
A Rowan alumnus, Poles returned to the University in 2013 following an extensive international playing and coaching career. He was an assistant coach with the Profs' men's basketball team for three years and then joined Lisella's staff in 2016-17.
Poles served as a head coach in Sweden and Italy for 10 seasons and was named the 2012-13 Eurobasket.com Coach of the Year. That followed a successful overseas playing career which spanned seven years and took him to more than 10 countries.
In addition, Poles coached at the Reebok/Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy from 2004 to 2012 and during that time, instructed 55 players who participated in the 2012 London Summer Olympics and 32 players who went on to play in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. He also coached 81 international players who were drafted into the NBA from the Eurocamp.
Poles was the starting center and leading rebounder on Rowan's 1996 national championship team and played his freshman year at Saint Joseph's University, where he was named to the 1992 Atlantic 10 Conference All-Rookie Team.
In 2020, his alma mater, Delsea Regional High School, retired his uniform number 44, making him the first athlete in school history to receive that honor. Originally from Glassboro, NJ, Poles was the South Jersey Player of the Year as a senior and helped Delsea to the NJSIAA State Group 2 Championship.
Poles, who his degree from Rowan in 2014, has two sons, Jelani and Jayden.
