A bombshell was felt throughout the GPAC, well at least it should have been! Coach John Hemenway has left Dakota Wesleyan University and taken the head coaching job at Berea College, another NAIA Division II school. Hemenway, who won the GPAC Conference regular season and Conference Tourney titles last season, had built Dakota Wesleyan into a GPAC power, and with the talent returning next year, they would be the likely favorite to repeat as champions. Berea on the other hand has not had a 20 win season since at least the 2005-06 season, in a conference that has not had multiple National Tourney bids in that same time period, so why is Coach Hemenway leaving and what does that mean to Dakota Wesleyan.

It was somewhat obvious that Hemenway would not be a lifer at Dakota Wesleyan. He was a young coach in his first head coaching job with experience at a major NCAA DII school as an assistant, so it was easy to imagine that he was headed on to bigger and better things, but Barea? The reasons cited in the official press release state that he left to be close to friends and family and to recruit the fertile basketball hotbed that is Kentucky. Family and friends is certainly an understandable reason for moving on, but does he really expect to recruit better talent in the KIAC (Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) than he was able to get at Dakota Wesleyan? I am no expert on small college athletics in Kentucky, but a small amount of research reveals that the KIAC in the last 5 years is a one bid conference in the national tournament and that bid has not gone to Berea in recent memory. In fact Berea has not had a 20 win season in at least 6 seasons. The GPAC annually has 3 or 4 schools play in the tournament, and one or two of those usually make a deep run. It doesn’t seem to add up, and speculation is pointless, but I do believe there is more to this move then is currently being reported in the media.

That rant is finished, now let’s speculate on what will happen to Dakota Wesleyan from here on out. Before Hemenway arrived Dakota Wesleyan had been a perennial underachiever. In fact Dakota Wesleyan won only 123 games in the 9 seasons preceding the arrival of Hemenway, and finished in the top half of the GPAC only once, when they finished 3rd in 2000-01. Compare that to Hemenway’s five seasons, when Dakota Wesleyan won 115 games and finished in the top three four of those five seasons! Next year shouldn’t be an issue. They lose Preston Broughton and Mitch Bain, who were certainly key performers for the Tigers, but the cupboard is far from bare at the Corn Palace (assuming everyone stays at DWU). Darrin Dorsey and Brady Wiebe were both first team all GPAC selections, and Chase Walder was all conference honorable mention, so barring a barrage of injuries Dakota Wesleyan should finish at or near the top of the GPAC standings no matter who’s coaching the team. It will be the 2011-12 season that truly reveals how much of Dakota Wesleyan’s success was because of Hemenway. Their big three will all be gone, and their new coach will have to rebuild the house that Hemenway built.

Once again, thank you to John Hemenway for helping to build the GPAC into the national juggernaut that they currently are, and good luck at Berea. I will continue to follow the situation, and hopefully will have more than my pure speculation to report on, but it will certainly be interesting to see who Dakota Wesleyan is able to land as their next head coach.