New Blue Dragon Head Coach Records 400th Win
(November 9, 2021) – Hutchinson, KS-
Tommy DeSalme, who took over the reigns at Hutchinson CC last May, recorded his 400th career win as college Head Coach Wednesday night, when the Blue Dragons picked up the road win with a 100-96 triumph over Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa.
Named the 15th Head Coach in HCC history, Coach DeSalme, is making his fifth stayover since starting his collegiate head coaching career. His first was at nearby Sterling College (20 miles NW of Hutch) in 2001-02. In fact, Tommy has never left the Sunflower State in any of his coaching gigs, the last three all in the Jayhawk Conference.
After Sterling, he spent one year at Kansas Wesleyan before jumping into the Juco scene with stops at Independence CC and Cowley College, prior to landing at Hutch. At the start of this season, having accumulated 284 KJCCC/Region VI victories at Cowley and Independence, DeSalme ranks seventh in Jayhawk Conference coaching victories and ninth in Region VI.
Overall, DeSalme is entering his 21st year as a HC. In the previous twenty, he only recorded three losing seasons, all consecutive, in the middle of his 12 year stint at Cowley. He left Cowley as their all-time leader in wins. Ironically, he is replacing Steve Eck at Hutch, who happens to be their career wins leader.
In five years at Sterling, DeSalme was 84-67 guiding the Warriors, including two trips to the NAIA national tournament. The one season at Kansas Wesleyan was special, posting a 28-4 record and winning regular season and post season conference championships, and advancing to the 2nd round NAIA DII national championship. His .875 winning percentage is still the record for all Coyotes coaches during any season.
On board at Indy, his first look from inside the Jayhawk East Division, DeSalme went 45-19 in two years, with a conference mark of 29-7.
A native of Bartlesville, OK, DeSalme found his next home at Cowley College (Arkansas City, KS) just 60 miles from his place of origin. During his twelve seasons leading the Tigers, DeSalme was 239-143, with seven 20-win season. The last two, after drastic changes in style of play, were his best.
After often being considered of the nations best defensive teams in DeSalme’s prior seasons, in his own words, he described his team as average and boring to watch. That propelled him to revamp his style to the high speed, high octane, helter-skelter product he put on the court during the past two season.
The new DeSalme, has raised eyebrows with his get it and go, shoot when you can, continuous fast break offense. It is certainly fun to watch, and for the players, it’s fun to display. Just ask them. That new wave put Cowley on the national map, proving that defense can be played, and effective, at 100 miles per hour. Other coaches at all levels are starting to retool some of their own philosophies because of the Cowley success story.
Transforming the Tigers into an almost a three point per minute nightmare for opponents, Cowley has led the nation in scoring over the last two years at 109.4 ppg (1st in 2020 and 2nd last year, .1 behind Grayson College.
Right before leaving Cowley, his teams had won back-to-back Jayhawk East titles. In addition, they were District runner-up and qualified as an At-Large team to the National Tournament in 2019-20 (covid cancelled), and captured the District title last year with record setting performances on the way to the finals in Hutch.
When asked to describe his first win as Dragons head coach with one word, DeSalme smiled, jokingly, yet seriously replied, “chaotic!” And that’s the way he wants his games to be, and that’s the way he wants his teams to play. Although I’m sure he’d prefer it to be organized chaos, the calm in DeSalme is gone. Opponents better be ready to chase and be chased for forty minutes (or more).
