Dale Wellman, a two-time National Coach of the Year, begins his twelfth year as head men’s basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in the 2025-26 season. In the 2023-24 season, the program won the A-R-C regular season and finished as runner-ups in the A-R-C Tournament. Due to the success of the season, the team punched their ticket to the NCAA III Tournament. The Prairie Wolves pushed through postseason play, making it to the Elite Eight for the first time since the 2017-2018 season. NWU finished #9 in D3hoops.com Men's Top 25 poll.
In 2018 after winning the program’s first NCAA National Championship with a school record 30 wins, Coach Wellman received NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year awards from three different organizations; the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), D3 News, and D3hoops.com. The following year, coming off of a 27-2 campaign, Coach Wellman was named National Coach of the Year by HoopDirt. Along with the National Coach of the Year Awards, Coach Wellman has won seven conference Coach of the Year awards in his career, including four in the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C). He has also received one D3hoops.com Region Coach of the Year award (2018), one NABC District Coach of the Year award (2019), and twice named Nebraska State College Coach of the Year (2016 and 2018).
Coach Wellman has led NWU to a 194-68 (.716) record in his ten years with the Prairie Wolves. His teams have won five A-R-C regular season conference titles, three A-R-C/IIAC Tournament titles, a runner-up finish in the A-R-C/IIAC Tournament, and a runner-up finish in the GPAC. His teams have made five National Tournament appearances during his tenure.
During the 2018-19 season, Wellman guided NWU to a 27-2 overall record reaching the second round of the NCAA III Tournament. Throughout 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.
After the NCAA National Championship in 2018 and a record-breaking 27-2 the following year, Wellman took NWU to a third straight NCAA III Tournament in the 2019-2020 season, finishing 25-4 overall and advancing to the second round of the tournament. NWU won a fourth straight regular season conference title with Wellman earning Coach of the Year honors. The Prairie Wolves ended the year ranked 14th in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.
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. Known for his up-tempo offensive style, NWU has scored over 100 points 55 times in Coach Wellman’s tenure. He has had three 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 Division III player. He is currently playing professional 3x3 basketball internationally while competing with USA Basketball for 3x3. In 2018, 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. In 2018-19, Garver was a 1st-Team NCAA III All-American and Cook repeated as a 1st-Team Academic All-American and 2019-20 Nate Schimonitz was named a 1st-Team NCAA All-American and NABC 1st-Team All-American while also being selected as a finalist for the Jostens Award.
Under Wellman, NWU also had a stretch of five straight Conference Players of the Year from 2016-2020. Bardsley won the award in 2016 while NWU was in the GPAC. He was followed by Cook winning the award in the A-R-C in 2017, and Garver being honored in 2018 and 2019. Schimonitz won the 2020 accolade. 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 Holy Cross 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 administrative 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.
Dale Wellman at Nebraska Wesleyan
2014-15: 13-13 (8-12 - 5th in the GPAC)
2015-16: 22-8 (15-5 - 2nd the GPAC) | NAIA Division II First Round | Final Ranking - 16th
2016-17: 18-8 (15-5 - 1st in the IIAC) | Conference Regular-Season Champion
2017-18: 30-3 (13-3 - 1st in the IIAC) | Conference Regular-Season and Tournament Champion |
NCAA Division III National Champion | Final Ranking - 1st
2018-19: 27-2 (15-1 - 1st in the A-R-C) | Conference Regular-Season and Tournament Champion | NCAA Division III Second Round | Final Ranking - 7th
2019-20: 25-4 (15-1 - 1st the A-R-C) | Conference Regular-Season and Tournament Champion | NCAA Division III Second Round | Final Ranking - 14th
2020-21: 3-3 (1-2 - 8th in the A-R-C) | A-R-C Semifinals
(Season Shortened and No NCAA Postseason Due To COVID-19)
2021-22: 14-12 (8-8 - 8th in the A-R-C) | A-R-C Quarterfinals
2022-23: 16-10 (11-5 - 3rd in the A-R-C) | A-R-C Quarterfinals
2023-24: 26-5 (13-3 in the A-R-C) | A-R-C Runners-up
2024-25: 20-7 (12-4 in the A-R-C) | A-R-C Runners-up
11 Seasons At NWU: 214-75 (126-50) | 1 National Championship | 5 Conference Regular-Season Title | 3 Conference Tournament Titles | 5 Post-Season Appearances
