Chadron State Picks Bargen As Basketball Coach
By CON MARSHALL / Chadron State
May 04, 2006
Brent Bargen, a Nebraska native who has been a Division I assistant coach the past 11 years, is the new men's basketball coach at Chadron State College, Athletic Director Brad Smith announced Tuesday.
Bargen, 36, is an assistant at Long Beach State in California and before that was on the staff at Kansas State University. He succeeds Dan Beebe, who was the Eagles' head coach the past nine years, but resigned at the end of the 2005-06 season.
Smith said he is excited about Bargen's appointment. There were more than 100 applicants for the position.
“The search committee worked extra hard on this process,” said Smith. “I am really pleased that we've landed a young coach with tremendous potential to build an outstanding program. I'm excited about the future of Chadron State basketball.”
Bargen said he believes he is well-prepared to become a head coach and he and his family are anxious to return to Nebraska, where both he and his wife were born and raised.
“I want to thank Brad Smith, President (Janie) Park and the search committee for giving me this opportunity. It's an honor to be selected from so many applicants. I hope to make everyone who had a part in this decision proud. I'm looking forward to being associated with Chadron State College, which I know has an excellent reputation both academically and athletically.”
Bargen was born in Superior, Neb., but lived in Milford from kindergarten through his junior year of high school. As a senior, he moved to Crete, where his father, Bob Bargen, was an assistant basketball coach at Doane College.
The new Chadron State coach was an all-conference football and basketball player in high school. He played basketball four years and was a starter two years at Doane under the legendary Bob Erickson. The Tigers won the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference championship his senior year in 1992-93. He earned his degree in sports management.
Bargen was an assistant coach at nearby Dorchester High School for one year and was an assistant coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1994-95, when the Plainsmen reached the NCAA Division III Sweet 16.
During the next five years, Bargen was an assistant coach under Tom Asbury at Kansas State University, where his titles were administrative assistant and director of basketball operations. He was the team's academic counselor four years. The Wildcats reached the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and played in the National Invitational Tournament in 1998 and ‘99.
The last six years, Bargen has been at Long Beach State, serving the first two years under Wayne Morgan, later the head coach at Iowa State, and the last four years under Larry Reynolds. He was the only assistant who was retained when the coaching change was made.
This past season, the 49ers were 18-12 and reached the finals of the conference tournament. They led NCAA Division I in scoring this winter with an 83.7-point average.
Bargen's wife, the former Leslie Grote of Harvard, was a volleyball and track athlete at Doane. She has been working for the Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation, the equivalent to the Nebraska School Activities Association, overseeing football, baseball and water polo. Her father, Don, died last May, but her mother, Birdeen, lives in Harvard.
The couple has three children. They are Ashley, who was a starter on the volleyball team as a freshman last fall at a high school with about 5,000 students in Long Beach; Zac, who will be a high school freshman this fall and plays football and basketball; and Jake, who will be a fifth-grader.
Bargen comes from a coaching family. His father was a basketball coach for approximately 35 years. Before serving as Erickson's assistant at Doane for about 10 years, he coached high school basketball at Milford. After leaving Doane, he was an assistant coach at Nebraska Wesleyan eight years, was the head coach at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, two years and an assistant at Barton County Community College in Kansas for a year. He now lives near Milford and is selling crop insurance.
Bargen's mother, Jolene, is an administrator of Sunrise Country Manor, a retirement home in Milford.
Bargen's uncle, Gary Bargen, also is a veteran coach and athletic administrator. He was the head basketball coach at Southeast Community College at Fairbury and Hutchinson Community College in Kansas before serving about 10 years as an assistant to Danny Nee at the University of Nebraska. He is now an assistant athletic director in charge of compliance at UNL.
The new CSC coach said he practically grew up in gymnasiums and has observed dozens of coaches during his lifetime.
“I've been around great coaches all of my life; as a youth attending countless camps, as a player and then as an assistant coach the past 13 years. I've learned from all of them. I especially want to thank Coach Reynolds here at Long Beach State for giving me a chance to work on his staff and for treating me and my family so well. We will miss Long Beach State tremendously. I wish the program nothing but the best.”
Bargen added that he appreciates the chance to become a head coach and the fact that he and his wife will be within driving distance of their parents and their children's grandparents in Nebraska.
“I'm excited that I'll be coaching in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. I know it is one of the elite conferences in the nation. I am acquainted with several of the coaches in the conference and know they have developed some outstanding programs. My goal is to take the Eagles to the elite eight in the conference and compete for the championship as soon as possible.”
Bargen said he has “already begun recruiting for Chadron State.” He plans to be in Chadron as soon as possible. He will participate in the CSC basketball camps in June and hopes his family can be settled in Chadron by early July.
The Bargen children will be in school until the third week in June. In addition, daughter Ashley is playing on a volleyball team that is involved in Junior Olympics competition until early July and son Jake will finish playing Little League baseball in Long Beach before the move is completed.
Good words for the new coach are welcome.
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