Marreese Speights is taking his coaching career to Winter Haven.
The former NBA champion and St. Petersburg native stepped down May 12 as boys basketball coach at Northside Christian after one season to become head coach at Polk State College, the school announced. It is his first college head coaching job. He starts June 1.
“Being from St. Petersburg, I spent a lot of time playing in Polk County,” Speights said in a statement released by the school. “I felt like Polk was where I was supposed to be. I’m excited to be part of something bigger than me.”
Speights, 38, went 19-12 in his lone season at Northside Christian and guided the Mustangs to the Class 2A state semifinals, where they lost 59-43 to eventual champion Providence on March 7. The school had just four winning seasons in the 15 seasons before he arrived.
He thanked Northside Christian principal Brandon Elam in a social media post May 12.
“It was truly a blessing to lead the program over the last year and build so many meaningful relationships,” he wrote. “I hope I left the program better than I found it.”
Polk State, an NJCAA Division I program in the Suncoast Conference, struggled in 2025-26 and hit a 14-game conference losing streak in January under coach Brandon Giles. Speights replaces him.
“He’s made a profound impact and has had on-the-court success everywhere he’s been,” Polk State athletic director Randy Lee said in a statement. “He has a proven track record of moving athletes on to the next level. This is a big moment for Polk State Athletics.”
A Gibbs High product who finished his prep career at Admiral Farragut Academy, Speights won a national championship at Florida in 2007 and an NBA title with the Golden State Warriors in 2015, one of 47 players to do both. He averaged 7.9 points and 4.1 rebounds over 705 games in 10 NBA seasons before playing three years in China.
His coaching résumé includes one season as a Georgia Southern assistant in 2023-24 and one as director of player development at South Florida in 2024-25. He ran his own AAU program, Team Speights, for more than 15 years, sending more than 100 players to college, and hosts the Speights Summer League each year for area teams.
His departure is the second high-profile boys basketball coaching change in Pinellas County in two weeks. Chris Blackwell left St. Petersburg High on April 27 to take over at St. Petersburg Catholic after 25 years, more than 600 wins, seven state semifinal appearances and two state championship game trips with the Green Devils.
Northside Christian has not named a replacement.