Piedmont Basketball Camps

Mens & Women's Basketball Coaching Staff

Greg Neeley
Head Men's Basketball Coach

Greg Neeley enters his eighth season as Head Men's Basketball Coach in the fall of 2020. The Lions have posted 85 wins under Neeley's leadership including four winning seasons.

During his time in Demorest, Neeley has guided seven USA South all-conference selections including Jordan Foote who posted a breakout season in 2019-20 earning first team all-conference honors with 11 double doubles and a career-best 40 point performance.

Justin Vallejo marked the first "of the year" award winner under Neeley after he took the conference by storm in his debut season earning USA South Rookie of the Year honors in 2014-15. That season also marked one of the biggest wins in program history for the Lions as they knocked off #6 Emory University inside Cave Arena for the first win over a top-10 at home.

The Lions finished the 2019-20 season with a 14-12 record going 9-9 in conference play. Piedmont earned the #3 seed in the USA South Tournament dropping a road contest in the opening round at Huntingdon.

The 2017-18 season was the second 15-11 mark the Lions have posted in Neeley's career with Piedmont while the 10 conference wins were its most in five seasons competing in the USA South. That season also marked the third-straight trip to the USA South Tournament for the Lions.

His team has also continued to get it done in the classroom with a total of 24 players making the NABC Honors Court while the team has earned the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award each season. That mark of seven-straight NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards is the longest streak in the USA South.

Neeley took over a men’s basketball program coming off a season that saw the Lions compete in just seven games as Piedmont was forced to cancel the remainder of the 2012-13 season. Despite the unsuccessful end to the season prior to Neeley’s arrival, his turnaround of the men’s basketball program at Piedmont became crystal clear.

Neeley's success at the helm was already evident following his season at Warren Wilson College where he led the Owls to the program's first-ever United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) National Championship. The Owls posted a 19-10 overall record in 2012-13 including winning 12-straight games to end the season despite playing the fifth toughest schedule in the country.

Prior to taking over at Warren Wilson, Neeley served as the Head Coach at Ancilla College in his home state of Indiana, a member school of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). While heading up the men’s basketball program at Ancilla, Neeley led the Chargers to the NJCAA District 8 Tournament in just his second year at the helm.

Before making the jump to the head coaching ranks, Neeley was an Assistant Coach at Piedmont working under then-Head Coach Lee Glenn for three of the team’s most successful seasons in the school’s NCAA era to that point. Helping to engineer Glenn’s high octane offense, Neeley’s work on the staff helped the Lions rank in the nation’s top-30 in scoring offense twice in those three seasons accomplishing the feat both in 2007-08 (13th with 83.7 per. per game) and 2009-10 (30th with 79.9 pts. per game) seasons.

Neeley has also gained experience by working the summer camp circuit as a coach and counselor at a quartet of NCAA Division I member institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, Xaiver University, and Miami University (OH). Additionally, Neeley also served on the camp staff of an NBA franchise, the Philadelphia 76ers, during the summer of 2005 when the club had a All-Star laden roster including the big names of Allen Iverson and Andre Iguodala.

With his experience on the camp circuit, Neeley has since helped establish the Piedmont basketball camps since coming back to Demorest serving as the co-director of the summer event along with Head Women’s Basketball Coach Jamie Purdy. Along with his camp experience, Neeley is also an active member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Most recently, Neeley was selected to the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Coaches' Academy as one of 30 NCAA men's basketball coaches chosen to participate in the inaugural class. Neeley has also served on the NCAA D-III Men's Basketball South Region Advisory Committee (2018-present) and is the USA South Men's Basketball Coaches' Chair (2018-present).

Neeley earned his bachelor of science in business administration from Ohio Northern University in 2007 where he played one season of men's basketball for the Polar Bears, an NCAA Division III member. A recipient of the school's Presidential Scholarship in his time at ONU, Neeley moved on to earn his master of business administration from Piedmont in 2009.

Jamie Purdy
Head Women's Basketball Coach

Jamie Purdy enters her 16th season as Head Women's Basketball Coach in the fall of 2020 also serving as Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator. Purdy, a former standout student-athlete for the Lady Lions herself and a member of the PC Athletic Hall of Fame, has established herself as one of the most successful coaches in the South at the Division III level, sitting inside the top-50 in winningest active coaches by percentage.

For the first time since joining the USA South, the women's basketball team hosted the 2019 USA South Tournament and won their third-straight tournament title marking their first on the home court. The three-peat was completed to cap off a 23-6 season with a 14-2 mark in league play and the USA South Regular Season West Division Championship.

Amari Price earned USA South Player of the Year honors and followed that with Tournament MVP honors scoring 16 points in the championship. The atmosphere was electric inside Cave Arena for the tournament weekend and provided one of the highlights of the 2018-19 season across the department.

During her time in Demorest, Purdy has amassed a 279-130 overall record for an outstanding .682 winning percentage with six trips to the NCAA tournament and seven combined tournament and regular season championships. Purdy led two GSAC Players of the Year, a GSAC Freshman of the Year, USA South Player of the Year and earned GSAC Coach of the Year honors herself.

Purdy’s second GSAC Player of the Year, Gainesville native Sada Wheeler, was the program’s first WBCA (Women’s Basketball Coaches Association) All-American honoree in the school’s NCAA era earning honorable mention during the 2011-12 season. Wheeler was also a first-team All-South Region selection by D3hoops.com becoming the first such award winner for Purdy while Amari Price earned All-Region honors in 2019 becoming the second Lady Lion to do so.

In her first two seasons with the Lady Lions, Purdy set the tone for a successful career with back-to-back NCAA postseason appearances after GSAC Championships. With eight 20+ win seasons to her credit in 14 seasons at the helm, four of those have come in the last four consecutive years.

Purdy came to Piedmont from Middle Georgia College where she served as the head coach for two seasons. After inheriting the junior college program with no players returning for her first season of play, Purdy led the Warriors to the Georgia Junior College Athletic Association championship game in just her second year at the helm. Overall, the head coach tabulated a 31-21 record in her two seasons in Cochran, Georgia for a winning percentage just shy of .600.

The PC alum was a familiar face around Lady Lion athletics long before taking the reins of the women’s basketball program. Purdy earned four letters in basketball at Piedmont under legendary former head coach Charles Cooper while also lettering twice in softball under current head coach Terry Martin.

In softball, Purdy won a Georgia Athletic Conference championship while also developing her commitment to defense under Cooper as one of basketball’s toughest defensive players. For her efforts in the green and gold as a student-athlete, Purdy was honored as an inductee to the Piedmont Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.

Purdy earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Piedmont College in 2000 before moving on to Georgia Southern University where she was earned a master of science in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport psychology in 2002.

Justin Hoshauer
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach

Justin Hoshauer joined Piedmont as assistant men's basketball coach over the summer of 2024. He joined the Piedmont staff following two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Messiah University in Pennsylvania.

While on staff at Messiah, Hoshauer oversaw individual skill workouts, film sessions and position specific drills as the head of player development, while also maintaining roles as head of operations and head of scouting.

On the operations side, Hoshauer managed the program's travel, equipment and fundraising efforts while also being in charge of film breakdowns and scouting reports as head of scouting. While in college at Grove City, he served as a student assistant and JV student-athlete helping to lead individual skill sessions, assist with practice preparation and helped with film breakdown/statistical research.

Hoshauer also has experience coaching at the high school level as he returned to his alma mater at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas where he served as a men's basketball assistant (2019) and summer strength and conditioning coach (2020, 2022). He has experience across a myriad of basketball camps and Elite/ID camps including EXACT basketball camps (2023), and both the men's and women's basketball camps at Messiah.

Hoshauer earned his bachelor of science in management with a concentration in sports management from Grove City College in 2022. He completed his master's degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership from Messiah University in 2024.

Christian Buckmire
Assistant Women's Basketball Coach

Christian Buckmire joined Piedmont's staff as Assistant Women's Basketball Coach in the fall of 2022. Buckmire rejoins the staff in a full-time role after spending two seasons (2015-17) with the Lady Lions as a student assistant.

Buckmire has spent several seasons at the high school level at both Dutchtown High School from 2017-2019 and Druid Hills High School in Dekalb from 2019-2022. During those stops he supervised training sessions and individual workouts and maintained records for the programs.

While at Dutchtown High School, Buckmire helped guide the first class 5-A regional championship team as they made an elite 8 state championship run. He served as the JV and Varsity assistant coach along with being the recruiting coordinator for the program.

Tasked with creating scouting reports, breaking down film and connecting with college coaches, Buckmire contributed in all aspects across the program.

As a student assistant at Piedmont, Buckmire helped direct individual and small group practice sessions under Head Coach Jamie Purdy. He managed statistics, logistics and contributed to game strategy during back-to-back conference tournament championship seasons for the Lady Lions.

Buckmire earned his degree in interdisciplinary studies from Piedmont College in 2017.