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Head Coach
Thadd O’ Donnell

Thadd O’Donnell is beginning his 14th season as Dickinson State's head wrestling coach. During his tenure, the Blue Hawks have enjoyed much individual and team success. Last year, Justin Schlecht became DSU's first three-time national champion and first to be twice-honored as the NAIA-NWCA Outstanding Wrestler-of-the-Year. In 10 of the past 11 years, the Blue Hawks have qualified the maximum number of wrestlers (12) for the NAIA National Tournament, and in the lone exception, 2006-07, there were 11 wrestlers who qualified. Nationally, DSU placed third as a team in 2006-07 and in 2007-08, fourth in 2000-01, eighth in 2004-05, and 10th as a team in 2002-03. He guided the Blue Hawks to a third place regional finish in 1998-99 and was named NDCAC Coach-of-the-Year in 1998-99, an honor he also received the previous year. In 2007-08 the Hawks were North Region champions and coach O’Donnell was named region coach of the year. He was also named Co-Great Plains Region Coach-of-the-Year honors after directing his Blue Hawk squad to a fourth place regional finish in 1995-96. His 1999-00 team earned the Sportsmanship Award at the NAIA National Wrestling Tournament.

Coach O'Donnell is involved in many professional wrestling organizations. He is the president of the NAIA Wrestling Coaches Association. He is also the NAIA National Rater and is on the NAIA oversight committee.

In addition to his professional organizations, Coach O'Donnell is also very active in the summer, putting on wrestling camps throughout the region. He has been the director of camps and clinics in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho. O'Donnell, a native of Baker, Montana, received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from Dickinson State University in 1991, and a master's degree in physical education from Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1993. While at Northern State, he also served as a graduate assistant in wrestling. After graduating from Northern State University, O'Donnell taught and coached wrestling at Lusk High School in Lusk, Wyoming until joining the Blue Hawk staff in 1995.

A three-time All-American at 134 lbs. for the Blue Hawks, O'Donnell holds the school record for most pins in a career (56 from 1985-89), most pins in a season (20 in 1985-86), and most wins by a freshman (36 in 1985- 86). Coach O'Donnell placed seventh at the NAIA national Tournament as a freshman, second as a sophomore, and eighth as a senior. He helped lead the 1985-86 squad to an eighth place finish at nationals, which at the time was the highest finish ever for a Dickinson State University wrestling team until the team’s fourth place finish in 2005-06. Coach O’Donnell was named to the Dickinson State University Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2005.

In addition to serving as head wrestling coach, O'Donnell is also the head men and women's crosscountry coach and assistant professor of health and physical education at Dickinson State. O'Donnell served as an assistant football coach at Dickinson State from 1995-2001.

O'Donnell resides in Dickinson with his wife Tracie and their two children: Danielle and Seth.