Jack Poirier had never heard of Ave Maria University when he first entered the transfer portal a year ago.
One trip to the school’s campus in Florida was all it took to convince the former Scituate basketball standout that he found his new home.
The 5-foot-11 guard has blossomed into one of the top 3-pointer shooters in the country for an Ave Maria team which leads the Sun Conference with a 20-5 record. A valued reserve, Poirier has made 41-of-76 shots from beyond the arc and his 53.9 percent ranks among the leaders in NAIA.
“It’s been a lot of fun this year, we’ve got a lot of really good, unselfish players,” said Poirier, who is averaging 6.5 points in 16 minutes. “We play a really fun style, it’s very similar to what we played at Scituate. We’re running, pressing and scoring a lot of points.”
A two-time Boston Herald All-Scholastic and a member of the prestigious Dream Team as a senior, Poirier averaged 19 points a game and concluded his career with 1,500 points. He went on to spend three seasons at LeMoyne, appearing in 28 games.
Following his redshirt sophomore year in 2022-23, Poirier put his name into the transfer portal. An assistant coach at LeMoyne, Ben Marello, had Florida connections and reached out to then-Ave Maria assistant coach Ryan Chlebek regarding Poirier’s college teammate Jeremiah Washington.
When that didn’t pan out, Marello suggested Poirier as someone who might be a good fit for the Ave Maria program. One thing led to another and Poirier began envisioning his next basketball chapter some 1,388 miles away.
“I honestly had never heard of the school,” Poirier said. “I went back and forth with coach Chlebek and we scheduled a visit down there. Everything down there was really nice, we stayed with some family friends who live in the area. I toured the school, met with the current players and I was pretty amazed with everything.”
One thing head coach Jamon Copeland learned right away was that Poirier was someone who loved the game and was willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.
“Jack is a tough, skilled kid with good values,” Copeland said. “Things just aligned perfectly and we are glad Jack is here with us.”
Poirier fit in as a key reserve on an Ave Maria team that went 22-10 and received the school’s first-ever at-large bid to the NAIA tournament. He played in 25 games, averaging four points a game while playing 11 minutes.
One of the more popular players in the program, Poirier was the recipient of the Emily Acosta Spirit Award, named in honor of a former basketball and softball player who died in a car accident. The award honors one student-athlete that plays their sport like Acosta lived her life: with selflessness, encouragement, passion, sacrifice, and dedication.
“I wasn’t totally sure what to expect in my first year because we had eight new guys coming in,” Poirier said. “Coach (Copeland) was very transparent, he said we had a deep team and would work out rotations. We had plenty of guys who could play and the really cool thing was that we had a group who accepted their roles.”
Many of those guys returned and helped make Ave Maria one of the most explosive teams at any level in college basketball. The Gyrenes lead the NAIA in scoring (96.3 ppg), cracking the 100-point plateau eight times, including a recent 126-94 win over Warner. Poirier has emerged as a Payton Pritchard-type option off the bench, as evidenced by his recent 19-point effort against Webber International.
“We have good depth at the guard position, we have five guys who can play and Jack is one of the top five,” Copeland said. “He’s played a big role for us as a specialist, he plays hard and can shoot it.”
As Poirier enters the home stretch of his second season at Ave Maria, he is thrilled he made the decision to head south for the second stage of his college career.
“Honestly, this has been a really special place to play,” Poirier said. “It’s a small school in a tight-knit community that really supports the team. I’m thrilled to have gotten an opportunity to play with a special group of guys.”