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

After a successful start to his coaching tenure at Dakota Wesleyan University in 2009, Steve Gust followed up with an equally successful season in 2010 and looks to, once again, match that success in 2011, his third season with the Tigers.

The 2010 squad finished with a 32-21 overall record and finished third in the regular-season Great Plains Athletic Conference standings with a 16-8 mark. One year after winning the league’s postseason tournament, Dakota Wesleyan fought back from a first-round loss and made it to the semifinal game, where it fell to Northwestern College.

Under Gust’s watch, Tiger slugger Casey Solem set several school records and earned numerous honors his senior year. The outfielder set records for batting average (.453), RBIs (63) and bases (136) in a season. Solem was named to the All-GPAC First Team for the second straight year and was also named an NAIA All-American Second-Team honoree – the first in school history.

Mario Mendoza, Ethan Opsahl and Thomas Pickett also earned All-GPAC First-Team honors, and Phil Johnson, Nick Loera, Clayton Grimstad and Rolando Sanchez all earned second-team honors. The four first-team picks match the school record, set in 2005. DWU had the second-most first-team picks, behind only regular-season champion Mount Marty College.

In Gust’s second year at the helm, Dakota Wesleyan started the 2010 season by winning eight of its first 10 games. The Tigers also had stretches where they won 12 of 15 games and, later in the season, nine of 10. DWU was on pace to take at least a share of the GPAC regular-season title heading into the final two games of the season, but the Tigers lost to both the University of Sioux Falls and Mount Marty – the two teams it was tied with in the league.

The Tigers came up with several big wins throughout the season, including an eight-inning, 5-4 win over NCAA Division II rival Southwest Minnesota State University. The game was tied at 4 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, but Solem hit a walk-off home run to end the game.

In the postseason tournament, Dakota Wesleyan lost to Northwestern 4-3 on a walk-off home run to start the tournament, but DWU came back with wins against in-state rivals USF and Mount Marty to advance to the semifinals. The Tigers had to battle the Red Raiders again, this time in the semis, and lost 14-13 despite a two-run rally in the ninth.

In two seasons, Gust has coached 15 All-GPAC selections, two GPAC Gold Glove winners and five NAIA Scholar-Athletes. He has an overall record of 67-39 in two 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.

Gust graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and coaching. He grew up in East Grand Forks, Minn.

Gust lives in Mitchell, and he has a 5-year-old son, Tommy John.

Dion Parks Assistant Baseball Coach Hitting		Chris Dennis Assistant Baseball Coach Pitching