From the young age of just two-years-old, when most kids are mastering the art of walking, fifth-year senior and team captain Pierre Sanders found his calling. Sanders’ love for the game of basketball was ignited the second his first ever basket. That first basket marked the start of a career full of determination, resilience and unyielding love for basketball. 

“I started playing basketball when I was about five, and I had my first basketball goal when I turned two. Both of my parents played basketball in high school and everything, so I was just always surrounded by it,” Sanders said, adding, “growing up, I always knew, like, basketball was my first love and I always dreamed of going to college and playing basketball. That was always one of my main goals growing up was to just play basketball. 

Growing up, Sanders played Amateur Athletic Union basketball and was a three-year letterwinner guard at Hutto High School, with 1,499 points during his years playing there.

While transitioning from high school to college ball, Sanders had offers from other universities, but the coaches were a big factor in Sanders’s decision to attend MSU to make his dream of playing college basketball come true. 

“I had other schools and everything, but I would say, like, the coaches and everything, like they showed a lot of love to me and, like, I felt like I was wanted here, and I wanted to be here,” Sanders said. 

Another factor was the connection that had already been established at MSU through Sanders’s AAU coach and one of his dad’s best friends. 

“My AAU coach and one of my dad’s childhood friends played here in the early 2000s. So I kind of already had, like, a connection here,” Sanders said. 

Throughout Sanders’s remarkable journey to where he is now, there have been some guiding hands who have helped shape him into the player and the man he is today. Sanders said his dad and all of his coaches have all helped him get to where he is today.

“My dad would be my biggest role model. Just because he’s been like really there, helping me, guiding me through basketball my whole life. But I will say, honestly,  all the coaches I have had growing up have played a big part in getting me to where I’m at today,” Sanders said. 

Sanders also said his trainer back home has helped him grow his game to a different level. 

“2019 to 2020 summer, I was with him everyday, and just the people he had me around, the way he helped me change my game and transform my game, it was just, I feel like that was one of the biggest things,” Sanders said.

After completing his final year of collegiate basketball, Sanders hopes to find an opportunity to continue his basketball career overseas and get to fulfill another dream of his and travel while doing it.

“I really just plan to play overseas somewhere. Really wherever the opportunity presents itself, just a good opportunity to go overseas. Kind of see the world while playing basketball, it is a lifelong dream of mine as well,” Sanders said.

While basketball is a huge part of Sanders’s life, he also has the drive to put his accounting degree to use through starting a business of his own with some of his teammates from MSU and helping out his family in starting a business. 

“While I’m even overseas and everything, I would want to use my degree. I’ve always thought about, like, kind of helping my dad like start businesses and things that I know he wants to do, and just knowing I got my degree in accounting, and just knowing different things within the business world I know it will help me help him,” Sanders said, adding, “and also starting my own businesses and me and some of my teammates have even talked about, like, even while we might be playing, starting different businesses and stuff here.”

Sanders is a dedicated player and leader to the MSU men’s basketball team. Behind him, cheering him on and what he says is his motivation to be the best he can be is his family. 

“My girlfriend Jenae [Arias] and my daughter Avangeline [Prejean-Sanders]. So I would just like to give them a shout out, just Jenae has been, me and her have been together going on four years. So like she has been here with me throughout my whole basketball journey. She has been pushing me on and off the court,” Sanders said, adding, “Then our daughter was born in December. So she has been pushing me as well. So I just want to give them both a shoutout for just pushing me to be a better person and a better human in general.”

As Sanders’s basketball journey continues, he lives by two mottos. One from his team and one from his family.

“Be third. Keep God first. Others second. Yourself last,” and “Be humble and hungry.”