Olson picks up third major coaching honor of 2015
SEWARD, Neb. – The third significant coaching honor of 2015 for Drew Olson surfaced on Friday when the Omaha World-Herald named the Concordia women’s basketball leader its Midlands College Women’s Coach of the Year. After guiding the Bulldogs to the national title game in March, Olson was also tabbed the NAIA Region 2 Coach of the Year and co-State College Coach of the Year by the Lincoln Journal Star.
“He’s really good at knowing what people need at the right time, whether he needed to yell at me or just sort of calm me down,” national player of the year Bailey Morris told the Omaha World-Herald. “He just knew what we needed on the team at a certain time, and that’s something not a lot of coaches have.”
Concordia’s first-ever winner of the Omaha World-Herald women’s coaching accolade also received both GPAC and regional coach of the year recognition following the 2011-12 season when the Bulldogs advanced to the national semifinals. The 2014-15 squad finished the season at 35-3 overall, ranked No. 2 nationally and was the GPAC tournament champion.
Olson owns program coaching records for overall wins (226), conference wins (122), national tournament wins (11) and national tournament appearances (seven). Over the last four seasons, Concordia has won two GPAC regular-season championships and has captured two GPAC tournament trophies. The veteran head coach has guided Concordia to seven national tournament trips over the past eight seasons. His teams have an active streak of 52-straight top 25 poll appearances.