After 44 total years of coaching and inspiring student-athletes, Mount Marty College (MMC) Women’s Head Basketball Coach Tom Schlimgen has announced he will retire after the 2017-18 academic year. In July, Associate Head Coach Todd Schlimgen will take over for Tom, who has led the Lancers women’s basketball team to incredible athletic and academic success during the past 10 years.
Schlimgen has coached 37 Great Plains Athletic Conference Selections and six NAIA DII All-Americans, plus 78 Pflieger-Olson Academic All-Conference athletes and 40 Daktronics Scholar Athletes. His teams have received nine NAIA Scholar Team Awards including the distinction of having the highest reported team grade point average (GPA) in the nation for NAIA Women’s Basketball for the 2016-17 school year. The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has honored the Lancers as a Scholar Award team eight times — with the highest reported GPA in the nation for NAIA Women’s Basketball in 2014 and 2016.
Schlimgen holds a 178-124 record at MMC and an overall coaching record of 640-385. His 178 career wins at MMC ranks second for career wins in the history of Lancer Women’s Basketball
“Mount Marty is truly a special place to be employed. I have been blessed to work with many outstanding professionals — administration and assistant coaches — during my time here,” said Schlimgen. “The success we have had athletically and academically is a tribute to the dedication and talent of our student athletes. Our women’s basketball coaching staff is very proud of our players accomplishments on the court and in the classroom.”
Leading up to the current season, Schlimgen’s teams have qualified for postseason play seven out of nine years, and he has guided the Lancers to three NAIA Division II National Tournament appearances during his tenure, including the advance of the 2015-16 team to the Fabulous Four — the best-ever finish in Lancer women’s basketball history. This team also accumulated 25 wins, the most in school history for women’s basketball.
Schlimgen has guided the Lancers to four seasons of 20 or more wins during his tenure, including a three-season run with 20 or more wins achieved by the Lancers each year.
He also served as MMC head men’s golf coach for six years and head women’s golf coach for seven. He was honored as the GPAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year for 2015.
In addition to his MMC career, Schlimgen spent four years as an assistant coach for Huron High School in Huron, South Dakota and 30 years as a head coach for Scotland High School in Scotland, South Dakota.
“Coach Schlimgen is a coaching icon in South Dakota, and we are grateful for the remarkable job he has done during his tenure at MMC,” said MMC Athletic Director Chris Kassin. “He has built an incredible program, and we are grateful that he has been able to do so with the support and cultivation of his son Todd as associate head coach, who is now ready to carry the torch. Todd has been instrumental in the success of the program over the last decade and I am excited to watch the program continue to flourish under his leadership.”
With more than 15 years of coaching experience at the high school and college levels, Todd Schlimgen has served as associate head coach at MMC under his father since 2009 and has been the head golf coach for three years.
“To follow in the footsteps of great coaches before me is a challenge I’m looking forward to, and I am very excited to take over a program that has had tremendous leadership over the past 25+ seasons, starting with Coach Chuck Iverson and then continuing with my dad,” said Todd Schlimgen. “Right now, and for the rest of the season, our main focus will not change, and that is to try to reach our full potential and strive to improve every day.”
Todd will continue to work with the golf teams at MMC to ensure their continued success, in addition to taking responsibility for the women’s basketball team.
Photo Courtesy MMC Athletics
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