Northwest Nazarene men’s basketball head coach Jon Hawkins and athletic director Paul Rush have announced the promotion of Chris Dendinger to Associate Head Coach just a couple of weeks before the start of the 2025-26 season.
“Chris’s leadership has elevated our program to new heights,” said Hawkins. “He keeps our players confident on and off the court through his intentional approach, in-game understanding, and commitment to recruiting student-athletes who truly fit our institution. He is incredibly deserving of this recognition, especially for the unseen hours that make such a difference.”
In his first season as an assistant in 2024-25, he helped the Nighthawks to their third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last five seasons. NNU also won 20 games for just the second time in its Division II history (since 2001-02), and had one All-Region performer and four All-GNAC student-athletes.
Chris was Colorado Christian’s Associate Head Coach in 2023-24 after three years as an assistant. While there, he coached seven All-RMAC players and the team improved their wins total each year.
Prior to CCU, he was a graduate assistant coach at Oral Roberts University from 2018-20, coaching one First Team All-Conference player, two Second Team All-Conference players, and one conference Freshman of the Year.
He also spent time as an assistant at John Brown University (2017-18), a volunteer assistant at Cedarville University (2016-17), and a student manager at Ohio University (2014-16). Of note, Ohio was the back-to-back MAC champions during his two seasons with an NCAA Tournament berth in 2015 and NIT appearance in 2016.
Chris received his Bachelor’s degree in Sports Sciences from Ohio University and earned a Leadership MBA from Oral Roberts.
Chris and his wife, Mya, a former Division One track and field student-athlete at Ohio University, reside in Nampa, Idaho.
