Dale Wellman, the 2018 NABC/NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year, just finished his fifth season as head men’s basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University and finished with a 27-2 record. Last year, he led the Prairie Wolves to the program’s first ever NCAA D3 National Championship as NWU finished the season with a school record 30 victories and only three losses. This season Wellman was recognized as the American Rivers Conference Coach-of-the-Year for a third straight season. In each of his five seasons at NWU, Wellman has received coach-of-the-year recognition. Coach Wellman has led NWU to an 110-34 (.763) in his five years with the Prairie Wolves. All five seasons his teams have finished in the top four in the league, including three Iowa Conference regular season titles, two ARC/IIAC Tournament titles and a runner-up finish in the GPAC. 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. He is a 1999 graduate of The University of The South in Sewanee, Tennessee. 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 earned a master’s degree in physical education (sports administration) in 2006 from Eastern Kentucky University.