Western Nebraska Community College has hired a new men’s basketball coach who has ties to Region IX.

Cory Fehringer, who played for Northeastern Junior College from 2004-2006 and most recently was the head coach at Williston State College in North Dakota, will be taking the reins as head coach of the Cougar men’s basketball program.

“I think to me it feels like I am coming home,” Fehringer said. “I have been gone for a long time at some distant colleges, and it can’t feel any better to be an hour and half away from the house I grew up in.”

Fehringer, who graduated from Sterling High School in Colorado, said when you are a coach, you never know where you will end up.

“I think the one thing that coaches understand is you are not quite sure where the whistle will take you,” he said. “I just remember admiring, I guess, the atmosphere at Western Nebraska when I played at NJC. Even as an opposing player, you understood that there is something special about Western Nebraska and understood the community has strong support for the men’s basketball program.”

Fehringer replaces Russ Beck, who coached the Cougars the past six seasons. Beck had a 124-100 record.

During his time as a coach and player, Fehringer has proven himself to be a winner. This past season, the Tetons finished 23-8 last season and 25-5 the year before. Fehringer has been a head coach since 2012 and in that time he has a coaching record of 85-40.

Fehringer brings not only on-court coaching knowledge to the game as one of the nation’s youngest head coaches, but also success in the classroom. In his two years at Williston State, he had a graduation rate of 88 percent, including three All-Academic selections.

“Over the last three years, we have won 73 games. We have won a conference championship and a regional championship,” he said. “Western Nebraska is a college I am extremely familiar with and I understand the expectations the College holds with the men’s basketball program and the desire to be one of the better teams in the country.”

WNCC Athletic Director Ryan Burgner said he believes that Fehringer will bring back that championship feel to WNCC.

“Coach Fehringer is going to bring energy back to Cougar basketball,” Burgner said. “He is a proven winner and he has solidified himself as one of the top young coaches in the country. He has built winning teams at both places he has been as a head coach and we expect him to do the same here and bring us back to Cougar basketball that we all know.”

Prior to leading Williston State College, Fehringer guided his team to a historic year at Dakota College in Bottineau, North Dakota, in 2013-2014, delivering a school record 25 wins, 10 straight weeks in the top 20 national polls with the highest ranking coming in at No. 12 (first time receiving national ranking in school history), and won the Region XIII title which had not been accomplished in over 20 years at the institution. For his efforts, Fehringer was awarded the Region XIII Coach of the Year.

Fehringer’s players have gone on to play NCAA Division I, Division II, and NAIA basketball. Some of the players that Fehringer coached include West Virginia University signee Teyvon Myers and St. John’s University transfer Adonis De La Rosa.

Fehringer is no stranger to Region IX, starting his collegiate playing days at Northeastern Junior College under the head coaching of Brian Joyce. In his two years at NJC, Fehringer helped the Plainsmen to 58 wins, a Region IX Title (2005), earning first team All-Region and first team All-Tournament honors, as well as a trip to the National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.

After a stop at Colorado State University, Fehringer would go on to finish his career at Hastings College in Hastings. He led the Broncos to a school record 15-0 start and also a national ranking of No. 6 in the country. He was the team captain and a 2007 All-conference selection in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

Fehringer had assistant coaching stops at Hastings College and Dickinson State University in Dickinson, North Dakota, before he was named the head coach at Dakota College in 2012.

What Fehringer likes about becoming the head man at WNCC is the fact that his family and friends can finally see him coach a winning program.

“Personally, it is the most comfortable position I have ever held with support of people nearby,” he said. “I never had the opportunity to have family and friends to see the success of our programs. This is the first time that uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers, friends, and old teammates are going to have an opportunity to see us coach as we go to work on the floor. That is very special for me because I have been doing it [coaching] a long ways from home for seven years now.”