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Jason Christensen
Head Women's Basketball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University '98
Emporia State University '04
jachrist@dwu.edu
605-995-2175

Dakota Wesleyan University women’s basketball introduced a new, yet familiar, face in the summer of 2010 when Jason Christensen took over as head coach.

Christensen, a 1998 graduate of DWU, is the 12th women’s basketball coach in the program’s 35-year history. He inherits a DWU squad that finished 8-23 overall and 4-14 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the 2010-11 season.

Christensen starts his college coaching career with a young team, as only three varsity athletes from the 2009-10 squad return for the 2010-11 season. The Tigers graduated five seniors in May, including Allison Johnson, an All-GPAC Second-Team pick who graduated as the seventh-highest scorer in DWU history with 1,355 points in three seasons. She is also fourth in school history for career average points per game with 14.6.

Christensen brings a wealth of basketball knowledge, as well as knowledge of the area, with him to the Tiger program. This will be Christensen’s first collegiate coaching experience, but he has 11 very successful years of high school coaching under his belt. For nine seasons, he coached the Mount Vernon High School girls’ basketball team. In those nine seasons, his teams went 173-29 (.856) with six conference titles, five district championships and four region titles.

In 2004 and 2005, Christensen led the Fillies to back-to-back Class “B” state titles with a 49-0 record. Mount Vernon also took second- and third-place finishes in two other trips to state. Christensen was nominated for the South Dakota Girls’ Coach-of-the-Year award four times and won the honor in 2004. He also coached the South Dakota/Nebraska All-Star Game.

Most recently, Christensen spent two seasons turning the Wagner High School boys’ basketball team into a state-title contender. Before his tenure with the Red Raiders, the team won 10 games in three seasons. In Christensen’s two seasons, the team went 34-8 (.809), won two conference titles and also achieved a top-five ranking in the South Dakota Sportswriters’ Association Boys’ Basketball Poll.

Christensen has also had the opportunity to coach at camps in South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, and he has organized individual camps in Mount Vernon and Wagner. He has also helped organize several basketball camps at Mitchell High School.

Christensen grew up in Mitchell and played high school basketball for the Kernels before graduating from Dakota Wesleyan in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education. He received a master’s degree in physical education, health and recreation from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., in May 2004.

Christensen and his wife, Michelle, live in Mount Vernon with their two children, Kaitlyn and Tyler.

Jory Hansen
Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach
Dakota Wesleyan University ’07
Dakota Wesleyan University ’09
johansen@dwu.edu
605-995-2960

Jory Hansen is entering his fourth season as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Dakota Wesleyan University. Hansen’s coaching focus is on the defensive end of the floor, where he teaches and calls Tigers’ defensive sets. He also plays a big role in scouting, recruiting and player development.

Over his first two seasons, Hansen served as a graduate assistant coach. Hansen also works as a Dakota Wesleyan admissions counselor, where he serves as the admissions’ liaison to the athletic department in addition to his assistant coaching duties.

During his tenure at Dakota Wesleyan, Hansen has coaching experience with both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. He spent his first two years in coaching as an assistant with the Tiger men’s basketball team, and just before the 2007-08 season began, he switched over to the women’s team. He also played for the men’s basketball team for two years.

A native of Lakefield, Minn., Hansen earned his bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Dakota Wesleyan in 2007, and he received his Master of Arts degree in higher education policy and administration in 2009.

He currently lives in Mitchell.