Baseball Coaches

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Steve Gust

Head Baseball Coach
The University of North Dakota ’01
stgust@dwu.edu
605-995-2853

Steve Gust helped a young Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team return to the upper half of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, and in 2012-13 Gust is hoping the experience his team gained will help it rise to the top of the league.

Gust, who enters his fourth season with the program in 2012-13, took a squad that finished 12-36 overall in 2011 and guided the Tigers to a 24-32 overall mark in 2012. Dakota Wesleyan finished fourth in the GPAC with an 11-9 mark, and made the eight-team postseason tournament where it went 1-2 and was knocked out in the second day of competition.

The Tigers’ signature win was a 2-1 victory against Doane College on April 21. The Tigers gave up just five hits to Doane, which won the league’s regular-season title and sat atop the conference standings much of the season. DWU also ended the regular season with a 13-3 win over Mount Marty College, which won the GPAC postseason tournament.

Dakota Wesleyan was well represented on the All-GPAC teams in 2012. Highlighting the Tigers’ selections was senior left-handed pitcher Ethan Opsahl, who was named the league’s pitcher-of-the-year. He is the first DWU baseball player to win a major award since Ben Jukich won the same award in 2006. Opsahl is the third Tiger to win a major conference award since the league started in 2000. He also earned All-GPAC First Team accolades, and garnered major league attention from the Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians throughout the year.

Opsahl tied the school record for strikeouts in a game with 17 against Hastings College this season, and finished the year one game shy of tying the school’s single-season wins record. He went 9-4 as a senior and finished 15th in the NAIA with 94 strikeouts.

Also for Dakota Wesleyan, sophomore designated hitter Nick Tadlock earned first-team honors and junior outfielder Erik Nockleby earned an All-GPAC Second Team nod in his first season with the Tigers. Maximum Shower, Michael Lukkason, Chris Ciatti, Toby Kaplan, Chris Housley and Josh Wagner all earned honorable mention status. Zac Turbes and Tony Pakutka were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes.

In three seasons, Gust has coached 30 All-GPAC selections, two GPAC Gold Glove winners, one GPAC Pitcher-of-the-Year and seven NAIA Scholar-Athletes. He has an overall record of 103-107 in three seasons.

He came to Dakota Wesleyan after four years as the head baseball coach at Northland Community and Technical College (East Grand Forks, Minn.), and he left NCTC as one of the most successful baseball coaches in school history. His Pioneers’ teams went 92-75 over four seasons, and Gust earned Minnesota Community College Conference North Division Coach-of-the-Year honors in 2005. NCTC qualified for the MCCC State Tournament all four seasons.

In his final season at NCTC, Gust led the Pioneers to a school record 27 wins and a second-place finish at the MCCC State Tournament. His squad also advanced to the NJCAA Region 13 Tournament in 2008, where they finished third. Gust also spent his summers coaching the East Grand Forks American Legion baseball team and amassed 466 total victories.

He spent one season as an assistant coach at the University of North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux finished that season 38-16 and qualified for the NCAA Regional Tournament. He has also coached high school baseball. At Sacred Heart High School (East Grand Forks, Minn.), Gust led the team to 132 wins and was named Coach-of-the-Year three times.

In 2010, Gust spent the summer as an assistant coach for the Mankato Moondogs, who are a part of the Northwoods League – one of the top collegiate leagues in North America. Gust helped coach seven players who went on to sign pro contracts.

In 2012, Gust was chosen as a head coach for the U.S. Baseball Championships North vs. South All-Star Game in Virginia. The game, which featured high school baseball players ages 17 and under from around the United States, was nationally televised.

Gust graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and coaching. In 2010, he graduated with a master’s degree and education policy and administration from Dakota Wesleyan.

Gust lives in Mitchell with his wife, Anita, and their three children: Trenton, Jaeden and Tommy John.

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Donald Simmons Jr.

Assistant Baseball Coach
University of Mississippi ’85
University of Denver ’94
dosimmon@dwu.edu
605-995-2937

Don Simmons is in his third season working with the DWU baseball team in 2013. He serves as the Tigers’ defensive and strength and conditioning coach. Simmons, a Eupora, Miss., native, has coached and played sports at a variety of levels. A 1985 graduate of the University of Mississippi, Simmons earned his Ph.D. from the University of Denver in 1994.

Simmons studied coaching at the United States Sports Academy and is a Level One Certified Coach (NFHS) in the state of South Dakota. He is also a graduate of the prestigious Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring (Florida Classic), and he is a member of the Amateur Baseball Umpires’ Association.

While still relatively new to the Tiger baseball program, Simmons is a familiar face on the DWU campus. He also serves as the dean and faculty member of the College of Leadership and Public Service at DWU, and his most recent research has focused on the role of leadership as it relates to organizational dynamics and team building.

Simmons, who is an expert on the modern Olympics and has written extensively on the subject, recently competed in the 2010 Chicago Marathon and the 2011 Des Moines Marathon and hopes to run all five of the World Marathon Majors, as well as compete in the Ironman World Championships.

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JT Fisher

Assistant Baseball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University ’97

JT Fisher enters his first season with the Dakota Wesleyan baseball team in 2012-13.  Fisher is a Dakota Wesleyan alum and played baseball for the Tigers from 1994-97. Fisher will work primarily with the pitchers and catchers this season.

Fisher, a Wisconsin Dells, Wis., native, is the head high school and American Legion baseball coach in Huron, S.D. He led the high school team to the state tournament in the program’s first year in 2012. Fisher started the high school program in Huron in built it from the ground up.

Prior to playing baseball at Dakota Wesleyan, Fisher played on a USA Baseball team that traveled and played in China and Japan for two months.

Fisher, who is a scout for Stars and Stripes Baseball, will also help with the strength and conditioning program at Dakota Wesleyan. He currently resides in Huron.

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Rich Loomis

Assistant Baseball Coach
Valley City State University
University of Wisconsin-Superior

Rich Loomis enters his first year with the Dakota Wesleyan University baseball program in 2013. Loomis will serve as the team’s pitching coach.

Loomis, who has worked as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Angels scout program since 2011, has a variety of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels. He was the pitching coach for the Wisconsin Woodchucks, which is part of the summer college wood bat Northwoods League. He also served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Trinidad State Junior College in Trinidad, Colo., and the pitching coach at Barry Unviersity in Miami Shores, Fla.

Loomis started his coaching career in Canada as the head coach of the Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan) Dodgers. He led the team to a provincial and Western Canada championship.

Loomis played college baseball at Valley City State University, where he was an all-conference and all-district pitcher and he earned a degree in elementary education. After college, he played in Moose Jaw, where he was named the league’s pitcher-of-the-year in his first season with the team. Loomis later received his master’s degree in special education from the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Loomis and his wife, Beth, have one daughter, Madison.

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Kevin Nunn

Assistant Baseball Coach
Concordia University (Ore.) ’90
kenunn@dwu.edu
605-995-2853

Kevin Nunn enters his second season with the Dakota Wesleyan baseball team in 2012-13.  Nunn comes to DWU with plenty of baseball coaching experience at a variety of levels and serves as the Tigers’ hitting coach.

Nunn, an East Grand Forks, Minn., native, played for Team USA in the summer of 1986 and then spent two years at Minnesota Crookston Junior College where he led the nation in batting average.  He finished his degree and college playing days at Concordia University (Ore.) in 1990.

From there, Nunn went on to the minor leagues where he played for several years, and then he served as a part-time scout for the Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins.  He spent six years as the Edina American Legion hitting coach in Edina, Minn., and six years as the hitting and infield coach at Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minn.  Nunn also served as the head varsity baseball coach for three seasons at Waseca High School in Waseca, Minn., and spent one year as the assistant coach at the University of Minnesota-Crookston.  He continues to serve as a hitting coach at youth clinics put on by the Minnesota Twins.

Nunn and his wife, Christy, have been married for 19 years and have three children: TJ, Nolan and McKenna.

John Greicar

Assistant Baseball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University ’11
john.greicar.08@students.dwu.edu
605-995-2853

John Greicar returns for his second season as an assistant coach for the Dakota Wesleyan baseball program in 2012-13.

Greicar graduated from Dakota Wesleyan in May after playing two seasons with the Tigers, and this year he is back with the team as an assistant coach.  In his senior season with Dakota Wesleyan, Greicar led the team in batting average (.351), hits (52), doubles (13), RBIs (26), putouts (348) and fielding percentage (.974).  The first baseman earned All-GPAC Honorable Mention honors as a senior.

In his junior year, Greicar had a .300 batting average and a team-high 272 putouts.  He finished the year with a .990 fielding percentage and had 42 hits and 26 RBIs.  Before coming to Dakota Wesleyan, Greicar played two seasons at Northland Community College in East Grand Forks, Minn.

Greicar is a native of Grand Forks, N.D., and recently obtained his master’s degree in educational policy and administration at Dakota Wesleyan.

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Ethan Opsahl

Assistant Baseball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University ’12

After one of the most dominant pitching careers in DWU baseball history, Ethan Opshal is back as an assistant coach with the program in 2013. Opsahl will work with the team’s pitchers.

Opsahl wrapped up his four-year career with GPAC Pitcher-of-the-Year honors in May. He earned All-GPAC First Team accolades as a sophomore and senior, second-team honors as a junior and honorable mention status as a freshman. He led the team in strikeouts in all four of his seasons with the program, and was first in the GPAC and 15^th in the NAIA with 94 strikeouts as a senior.

Opsahl tied the school record for strikeouts in a game with 17 against Hastings in 2012, and finished the year one game shy of the school’s single-season wins record with a 9-4 mark. Opsahl finished his career with 278 strikeouts in 280 innings pitched. He went 26-12 in 60 appearances with 18 complete games, three shutouts and three saves.

The Twin Valley, Minn., native, graduated from DWU in May.

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Zac Turbes

Assistant Baseball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University ’12
Zac.Turbes.10@students.dwu.edu

After a two-year stint as a pitcher for the Tiger baseball program, Zac Turbes is back as an assistant coaching for the 2013 season. He will serves as the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

Turbes, who made 15 appearances on the mound in two seasons at Dakota Wesleyan, will work with the team’s pitchers this season. He transferred to Dakota Wesleyan from Allan Hancock College prior to his sophomore season.

Turbes, a Santa Maria, Calif., native, graduated from DWU in May with a degree in exercise science.