Ohio Dominican University Athletic Director Jeff Blair announced the hiring of Kelly Winter as the men’s basketball head coach on Thursday.
“We are excited to introduce Kelly Winter as our next men’s basketball coach,” Blair said. “Kelly’s passion, energy and professionalism really stood out to us throughout this process. His commitment and work ethic, along with his familiarity and love of the basketball program, will continue to grow and strengthen our team, and we are excited about the future under his leadership.”
“I would like to thank Dr. Gervasi, Jeff Blair, Sandy Rowley and the search committee for their support and trust in me to have the opportunity to lead this basketball program in the years to come,” Winter said. “This is a tremendous honor for me as I was born and raised in Columbus, and the familiarity and comfortability with the Ohio Dominican program will allow the transition to be very smooth. I would also like to thank Dan Evans as these past five years have been special, and I am extremely excited to continue the upward trajectory of this program.”
Over the last five years, Winter has been an assistant on the staff at Ohio Dominican, where he has helped lead the team to a 15-game win improvement since 2014. That includes achieving the best record in the Division II era for the program in 2017-18 at 20-11, where they also won the G-MAC Tournament Championship and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. He also helped lead the 2018-19 team to its best conference record since joining the Division II ranks at 13-7.
As the recruiting coordinator, Winter has signed student-athletes from five different states, and as camp director saw a 103 percent increase in team camp participation and a 40 percent increase in the elite camp participation.
Also here at Ohio Dominican, Winter created and executed all phases of the strength and conditioning program. His coaching and training helped produce two first team all-conference players and five 1,000 point scorers.
Before his time with the Panthers, Winter was an assistant at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he helped guide the team to the NCAA Division III Final Four in his final year.
Winter graduated from nearby Capital University in 2012 where he played basketball. As a player, he led the team to an Ohio Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championship, earning All-OAC honors, and was the OAC Tournament MVP in 2012. Winter then went on to earn his Masters of Science in Exercise Physiology at Illinois State in 2014.
http://ohiodominicanpanthers.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/releases/20190509kh9bw5
