Dale Wellman, a two-time National Coach of the Year, enters his sixth season as head men’s basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2019-20. Last season he was named the HoopDirt.Com NCAA Division III Coach of the Year. The previous year Wellman received 2018 NABC/NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year recognition.
Coach Wellman, who was the American Rivers Conference Coach of the Year for a third straight season and NABC West Region District Coach of the Year in 2019, has led the Prairie Wolves to three conference championships, three national tournament appearances and the program’s first National Championship in his five years.
He led the Prairie Wolves to the program’s first ever national championship in 2018 as NWU finished the season with a school record 30 victories and only three losses.
Last season, Wellman guided NWU to a 27-2 overall record reaching the second round of the NCAA III Tournament. During the regular season, Nebraska Wesleyan was ranked #1 every week except for one in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. They averaged 90.2 points per game outscoring their opponents by 17.3 points per game, which was 4th best in the nation.
Wellman received National Coach of the Year honors from three different organizations for the 2017-18 season. He was also the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach-of-the-Year for a second straight season and received West Region Coach of the Year honors. In each of his five seasons Wellman has received coach-of-the-year recognition.
Coach Wellman has led NWU to an 110-34 (.764) record in his five years with the Prairie Wolves. His teams have won three straight conference regular season titles and all five seasons his teams have finished in the top four in the league, including three American Rivers/Iowa Conference regular season titles, two A-R-C/IIAC Tournament titles and a runner-up finish in the GPAC. NWU was 1st in 2017 and 2nd in 2016 despite being picked to finish 8th in 2017 and 7th in 2017 in the preseason polls.
Known for his up-tempo offensive style, NWU has scored over 100 points 47 times in Coach Wellman’s tenure. He has had two players earn three All-American awards and three CoSIDA Academic All-American awards. Wellman coached Trey Bardsley to become a 1st-Team NAIA All-American in 2015-16 and earn the Jostens award for the top NCAA III player. He is currently playing for the Washington Generals competing against the Harlem Globetrotters. In 2017-18, Wellman coached Ryan Garver to earn NCAA III honorable mention All-American honors and Cooper Cook was named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for men’s basketball and all of NCAA Division III. Last season, Garver was a 1st-Team NCAA III All-American and Cook repeated as a 1st-Team Academic All-American.
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.
Overall, Wellman has a career coaching record of 177-120 in ten 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.
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.
He 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.
