Butch Estes leaving Barry University after 12 years as Bucs men’s basketball coach

Jonathan Holton’s life was – as he puts it – “in shambles.”

But Butch Estes helped him put it back together.

Estes, 76, recently announced his retirement from Barry University, where he had served as men’s basketball coach for the past 12 years.

In total, Estes has coached college basketball for 52 seasons, including 38 years as the head man.

Estes has won 11 Coach of the Year honors, and he is the only coach in Barry history to take the men’s basketball team to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. He also led Barry to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the only time in school history, and he did that twice.

But beyond all of that, Estes has made a positive influence on young men – just ask Holton, who went on to play Division I basketball at West Virginia and is now playing as a pro, most recently in Kuwait.

“He’s a winner,” said Holton, who played for Estes at Palm Beach State. “He’s a great coach – did things by the book.

“When I got to him, I had an attitude. My life was in shambles. He had me over to his house for dinner. His wife would cook, and they made me and my teammates feel at home.

“I’m happy he got on me academically because that allowed me to play at the next level at West Virginia.”

Estes coached at three different Miami colleges. He was the head coach at Miami Dade College (2003-2006); and he was an assistant at the University of Miami (2006-2007) before landing at Barry.

It was at Barry where Estes had his most success as the Bucs won more than 20 games in four straight seasons (2014-2015 to 2017-2018).

In 2016 and 2018, Barry came within three wins of a national championship.

Adrian Gonzalez, who is now a Miami-Dade police officer, was a guard on that Barry team that went to the Elite Eight in 2016.

Gonzalez, a gifted offensive player who had won a state title at Hialeah Gardens High, said Estes pushed him to be better on defense.

“Playing for Butch was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Gonzalez said. “But he was strict on me about my defense.

“He demanded a lot of me at an early age, as a freshman.”

Dozens of Estes’ former players have gone on to play pro basketball, a list that includes former Barry All-Americans such as Elvar Fridriksson (now playing in Greece) and Yunio Barrueta (Spain).

Estes has also served as a mentor to younger coaches such as Bill Morosco, who was 28 when he was hired at Barry.

Morosco is now the head coach at Lynn University, an NCAA Division II program in Boca Raton.

“I learned how to be a head coach from Butch,” Morosco said. “He taught me how to teach players. He taught me how to manage games.

“Sometimes, I would sit in his office, and I would almost quiz him. ‘If we’re down by three points in the final 10 seconds, and they have the ball, what would you do?’

“He taught me to always keep a couple of timeouts in your back pocket for the end of games.”

Added Justin Furr, who is now an assistant coach at Indiana State: “Coach Estes has been a model of consistency throughout his career.”

For now, Estes will remain at Barry, helping the Bucs find a new coach, which is imminent.

In August, Estes will officially leave Barry and return to Charleston, South Carolina, where his wife, Tonya, is the news director for WCBD-TV.

“My No. 1 motivation for leaving Barry is that I’ve been living away from my wife for the past six years, and that’s not healthy for a marriage,” Estes said.

“I hate to even think of all the money we’ve spent on flights back and forth to see each other and on a house over there and a condo down here.”

As for what’s next in his life, Estes, who has five years of experience as a TV basketball analyst for FOX, doesn’t know if he will return to broadcasting or get a coaching job in the Charleston/surrounding areas.

But Estes said he can’t sit around and do nothing.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “But, whatever it is, I’m excited about it.”