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Coach Jeff Dittman, in his second year at Hastings College, led the Bronco women to a 30-3 record, a GPAC regular season championship, a GPAC tournament championship, a No. 1 national ranking and the No. 1 overall seed in the NAIA national tournament.

Dittman is no stranger to success. He won seven Dakota Athletic Conference championships as coach of Dakota State University and had 245 wins with DSU.

Dittman credits his award to a strong senior class.  "Every time we've had a great senior class, there is a lot of awards for everybody," Dittman said. This year's group, when they go out and execute like they do, they make everybody look good."

The Broncos placed all four seniors on all-conference teams. The players have changed to fit Dittman's style, which he believes they have done well.

"A system is only as good as the players that are in it," Dittman said.

Dittman is the third person to hold the head coaching position at HC. His key to success is the same as the coaches before him: defense.

"I think our athletes understand if they want to be a great team, it's all about defense," Dittman said. "That's what's been preached here. I know the two predecessors all stressed defense. In that sense, there hasn't been a lot of adjusting for the players.

Creech

Lance Creech is in his eighth season as head coach of the men's basketball program. His broncos have been ranked as high as 18th in the country this season.

The Broncos qualified for the NAIA national tournament for the first time since 1995 and only the second time in school history, but Creech says it is not simply because of him. "To me it's more of a reflection on the program and the kids that we have in our program," Creech said."

"To me, [coach of the year] is the ultimate team award, if you can't win a championship as a group."

Creech associates the ability to overcome adversity with his success as a coach and his team's success.

"With this year's group, what we've tried to do is to continue to talk about adversity because it's going to happen," Creech said. "I think the thing that this group has been better at than any other group that I've had here at Hastings College, which is dealing with that adversity."

This season Creech experienced something that made him feel almost nine years older, he said. His team traveled to the University of Sioux Falls for the GPAC semifinals and lost in overtime.

"To go into your locker room after the last game of the season that's on your schedule, normally you talk about we did this and that, and where guys need to improve," Creech said. "I was literally speechless after the game. The game of basketball for the entire season has been in our control and at that moment it was no longer in our control. That was really tough."

The loss meant that the Broncos, a bubble team, had to wait a week before hearing about their season and needed some key upsets in conference tournaments to make it to the national tournament.

The Broncos got those key losses and earned the 10th at-large bid out of the 11 total. The GPAC coach of the year will lead his team against 11th-seeded Cardinal Stritch on Thursday in Point Lookout, Mo.