A relatively stable landscape of GPAC coaches has experienced a seismic shift this summer. With the retirements of Briar Cliff Men’s Coach Todd Barry, Northwestern Women’s Coach Earl Woudstra, and Midland Men’s Coach Rich McGill the conference is losing 64 years of GPAC coaching experience, 1,014 overall wins, and 19 national tourney appearances. Each of these coaches has left a distinctive mark on his institution. Earl Woudstra, with his 4 championship rings has had the most postseason success; Todd Barry has a Final Four appearance as the Northwestern Men’s Coach and raised the Briar Cliff program out of the GPAC doldrums; and while rich McGill may not have been as successful in recent years, he still has been one of the iconic figures in the GPAC with a wide coaching tree (including my own high school coach Bill Morrison) beneath him.
The departure of these three GPAC pillars opens up an opportunity for some new head coaching blood, and in the case of the Briar Cliff men and the Northwestern women, they didn’t have to look far. Nic Nelson and Chris Yaw, each move into the position after holding assistant positions for several years that should result in smooth transitions. In the case of Yaw, he’s been in the program for seven years and has been the defensive coordinator of sorts for several years, and with the talent they have returning from last seasons national championship team, I wouldn’t expect them to miss a beat. I think Nelson and Briar Cliff will be the more intriguing of the two next season. Nelson has been the ace recruiter for the Chargers, and will need that to continue after graduating several linchpin seniors from last years national tourney team. Both have brought in new assistants, with Yaw making the big splash by getting former NWC star Deb Remmerde to once again join Raider Nation. Briar Cliff signed Mark Svagera from Dickinson State, who I quite frankly don’t know much about, but appears to be a quality up and comer.
With respect to Nic Nelson and Chris Yaw, the big splash hire still belongs to Midland University, by bringing in Todd Eisner. Eisner has been a bit of a job jumper but the guy flat out wins! He has experience as an assistant at the division I level, and his connections developed at Creighton and Bellevue will help in recruiting the rich talent pool in Omaha. It really seems that Midland is really intent on transferring the jolt of momentum received from all the Dana transfers, and becoming a player in the conference. It’s going to be really fun to watch this all shake out, can it be basketball season?