Dale Wellman is beginning in his fourth season as head men’s basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Wellman was named the 2016-17 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Prairie Wolves to a share of the IIAC regular season conference championship in the team’s first year in the league. In his first two seasons at NWU, Wellman was the Association of Division III Independents Coach-of-the-Year and was named the Nebraska State Colleges Men’s Coach of the Year in 2016.
In three years with the Prairie Wolves he has taken the NWU men’s basketball program back to national prominence.
Most recently in 2016-17, Wellman led NWU to the IIAC regular season co-championship, the first conference championship in men’s basketball at Nebraska Wesleyan since 2000. His team earned the No. 1 seed in the IIAC Postseason tournament, finishing with an 18-8 overall record in their first season competing as a full-time member of NCAA Division III and the IIAC. He coached the conference player of the year, for a second straight season and had two players earn D3Hoops All-Region recognition.
Under his guidance in 2015-16, the Prairie Wolves earned a trip to the NAIA II National Tournament finishing with a record of 22-8. The team ended the year ranked No. 16 in the NAIA II Coaches Poll after getting to the postseason for the first time since 2001. That team led the country in scoring for the second straight season at 96.3 points per game and averaged 14.2 made 3-pointers per game which also was tops in the nation.
Wellman has led NWU to a 53-29 (.646) overall record in his three years with the Prairie Wolves. All three seasons his teams have finished in the top four in the league, including top two finishes the last two years. NWU was 1st in 2017 (IIAC) and 2nd in 2016 (GPAC) despite being picked to finish eighth in 2017 and seventh in 2016 in the preseason polls.
In his first season at NWU, Wellman brought his high scoring offense to the Prairie Wolves program. Nebraska Wesleyan led all of NAIA Division II in scoring at 92.5 points per game, going over 100 points in 10 of 26 games. Picked to finish last in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, Wellman guided NWU to a 13-13 overall record and a 10-10 mark in the GPAC to finish fifth in the league standings. NWU made the GPAC Postseason Tournament as the No. 5 seed after winning 11 of their final 15 regular season games.
Of the 82 games that Wellman has coached, NWU has scored over 100 points 33 times. On February 14, 2017, the Prairie Wolves broke the school record by scoring 144 points against Kansas Christian College. The 2015-16 team shattered the school record for single season points and 3-pointers.
He coached Trey Bardsley to become an NAIA II 1st-Team All-American in 2015-16 and earn the Jostens Award for the top NCAA III player. Bardsley earned All-America status in both seasons under Wellman and set five school records as a senior. He is currently playing for the World All-Stars competing against the Harlem Globetrotters.
Overall, Wellman has a career coaching record of 120-115 in nine seasons as a head coach.
Wellman came to NWU after spending six seasons as the head coach at Alfred University, a NCAA III Institution located in Alfred, N.Y. He was named the Empire 8 Conference Coach-of-the-Year in 2013-14 leading his team to an 18-9 overall record.
In 2013-14, Alfred ranked third among all NCAA III teams in points per game at 97.6 points per contest, reaching the 100-point mark in 13 of 27 games. They also ranked fourth in the country in steals, while leading all of Division III in total rebounds and offensive rebounds per game. In total, Alfred finished in the top 10 nationally in 10 different statistical categories while playing an average of 15 players per game.
While at Alfred, Wellman inherited a program that had just completed a 2-23 season before his arrival then turned the program around leading the Saxons to postseason tournament bids in two of the past three years. His team showed a six-game improvement in his first season followed with a three-game hike in year two. In 2011-12 he led Alfred to the postseason for the first time in 11 years, competing in the ECAC Upstate Tournament.
Before his stint at Alfred, Wellman spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Williams College in Massachusetts under current George Mason head coach and two-time NABC Division III Coach-of-the-Year winner, Dave Paulsen. In his two seasons, Williams won the Conference Championship in 2007 and advanced to the NCAA Division III National Tournament.
His collegiate coaching career began in 2002 when he was an assistant coach at Kenyon (Ohio) College. A year later he was appointed assistant coach at Union College in New York. He then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Eastern Kentucky University where he helped EKU set a school record for wins and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Wellman is a 1999 graduate of The University of The South in Sewanee, Tennessee where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. He played four seasons for the Tigers, participating twice in the NCAA Division III National Tournament (1997, 1998) and earning SCAC All-Academic honors. He also played baseball and earned All-Conference honors. He earned a master’s degree in physical education (sports administration) in 2006 from Eastern Kentucky.
Wellman and his wife Lori, have two children Brady and Tessa.
