Indiana Tech men’s basketball head coach John Peckinpaugh has resigned, effective immediately, to take an assistant coaching position at his alma matter, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) for the Fort Wayne men’s basketball program, Director of Athletics Debbie Warren announced.
“Coach Peckinpaugh has done a good job here at Indiana Tech, positioning us to continue to grow a winning program,” Warren said. “We wish him every success in his new endeavors.”
“This was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make in my life because of all the work that the coaching staff and I had put in and the returning players we had,” Peckinpaugh said. “They were all my recruits. I was really looking forward to working with those guys more. But as I told them, this is a once in a lifetime offer that I have here. I don’t know when another offer like this would come.”
In his three seasons at the helm for the Warriors, Peckinpaugh had a 54-40 record overall and a 39-27 mark in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) play, including back-to-back third places finishes the past two seasons.
The Muncie, Indiana native led Tech to the 2016 NAIA National Championship, engineering a 12-game turnaround from the previous season and garnering WHAC Coach of the Year honors following a 23-10 regular season and a 17-5 mark in conference play to finish third. The team would rise as high as 16th in the NAIA Division II National Championship and garner an at-large selection as the fourth seed in the Duer Bracket.
Peckinpaugh coached nine WHAC All-Academic Team selections, six WHAC All-Conference selections, five Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes, three NAIA All-Americans (Dominique Walls, Miles Robinson (twice), three WHAC All-Newcomer recipients, two WHAC All-Defensive Team honorees and one WHAC Newcomer of the Year (Robinson) during his time with the Orange and Black.
A search for a new head coach will begin immediately.
