Sam Dixon will be in entering his sixth season as the head women’s basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan for the 2022-23 season.
Dixon has posted a 38-70 overall record in five seasons as the head coach of the Prairie Wolves women’s basketball team. NWU has qualified for the conference tournament twice under Dixon's direction.
In his fifth season with the Prairie Wolves, Coach Dixon led Nebraska Wesleyan to a 4-20 overall record. Delaney Roberts was named Honorable Mention All-A-R-C during the season.
Last season, Dixon navigated NWU through the COVID-19 global health pandemic, which limited the squad to just nine games. Johanna Vandenack ranked top 10 in the conference for three statistical categories en rout to an All-Conference selection. Additionally, Nebraska Wesleyan hosted a conference tournament game in the COVID-19 shortened season.
The previous season, Dixon led the Prairie Wolves to a 7-17 overall record. Dixon coached Caitlin Navratil to NCAA All-American recognition, just the third NWU women's basketball player to earn All-American honors in program history. During the 2018-19 season, he guided the Prairie Wolves to the conference postseason tournament for just the second time in program history. NWU was 12-14 overall, going 7-9 in American Rivers Conference play to finish 6
th in the league standings. Off the court, his team had a team GPA of 3.656 to rank 8
th among all NCAA III women’s basketball teams.
In his first season leading the Prairie Wolves program, Dixon guided NWU to a 14-11 overall record. It was the highest win total and first winning season since the 2000-01 season. The Prairie Wolves averaged 77.0 points per game to lead the Iowa Conference in scoring. NWU averaged 14.72 steals a game to lead the conference and rank 9
th in NCAA Division III women’s basketball.
He has coached Caitlin Navratil to three straight 1
st-Team All-Conference honors and back-to-back 1
st-Team All-Region recognition. His teams have posted two of the top five single season scoring averages in program history.
Dixon came to NWU with over 30 years of experience as a head coach and assistant coach at the college level. Dixon was the top women’s assistant coach at Northwestern University in the Big 10 conference the four years before arriving at NWU. He helped the Wildcats to three postseason appearances, including the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Prior to his time at Northwestern, he was an assistant coach for two seasons at the University of Akron.
Dixon was the head women’s basketball coach at Furman University for eight seasons from 2001-08. His tenure was the second longest in the history of the school’s women’s basketball program. At Furman, he had one player earn SoCon Player of the Year, recruited five players that scored over 1,000 points and had five players that played professionally overseas. During his time at Furman, he also served as an assistant coach for USA Basketball U20 and U21 World Championship teams.
Overall as a head coach Dixon has a record of 135-178 in 11 seasons.
Before landing at Furman, Dixon served as Associate Head Coach at Clemson University and was an assistant coach at the University of Arizona. In the four years as a women’s assistant at the two schools, all four teams earned berths in the NCAA Tournament.
He has head coaching experience at the NCAA Division III level, serving as the head men’s basketball coach at Denison University from 1987-91. He also worked as an assistant men’s coach at Northern Illinois University, Kent State University, University of New Mexico, Davidson College and Northern Kentucky.
A physical education graduate of the College of Wooster, Dixon played four year for the Fighting Scots and in 197 helped the team reach the NCAA South Regional Finals. As a student-athlete he earned First-Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference accolades in 1979 and was the team’s most valuable player. A 1989 inductee into the Wooster College Hall of Fame, Dixon was also named All-Great Lakes Region and earned third-team All-America status.
Dixon went on to earn a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1980 and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1997. Dixon and his wife, the former Karen Schiferl reside in Lincoln.
Coach Dixon Record at NWU
| Year |
Overall Record |
Conference Record |
| 2017-18 |
14-11 |
5-11 (7th, IIAC) |
| 2018-19 |
12-14 |
7-9 (6th, A-R-C) |
| 2019-20 |
7-17 |
3-13 (T-7th, A-R-C) |
| 2020-21* |
1-8 |
1-7 (8th, A-R-C) |
| 2021-22 |
4-20 |
2-14 (9th, A-R-C) |
| Career |
38-70 |
18-54 |
*2020-2021 Was Limited To Nine Games Due To The COVID-19 Global Health Pandemic*
