Dave Springer enters his 12th year as head coach of the Shippensburg University men’s basketball team. Over the course of his career, Springer has recruited and graduated the winningest senior class in school history and revitalized the program into a PSAC Championship contender.
Including one season in which he was the interim head coach at Millersville University, Springer has won 148 games as a collegiate bench boss - including a 137-169 mark with the Red Raiders. In 2005-06, Springer produced his most successful team, as it won a Shippensburg-record 24 games, captured the PSAC Western Division title with an 11-1 conference mark and was a runner-up in the PSAC Championship.
It was Shippensburg's first PSAC West crown since 1989, and at season's end the Red Raiders nabbed the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Division II East Region and made the school's second appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its first since 1991.
Springer's teams have also built a reputation for playing tough, aggressive defense. In the 2005 and 2006 campaigns, his teams finished in the nation's top 10 in scoring defense, and were ranked fourth in 2005-06 after allowing just 59.1 points per game.
Springer's success did not go unnoticed, as he was tabbed PSAC Western Division Coach of the Year for the 2006 season. He was recently selected to serve as a member of the 2007-08 East regional advisory committee (RAC) for the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Committee. Among his duties were to rank the top teams in the region as well as aid with the selection process for the NCAA tournament.
Shippensburg has also built a winning tradition at Heiges Field House under Springer. Entering the 2008-09 season, his teams had won 44 of its last 55 games at home, including the opening round game of the PSAC Tournament in 2006.
Springer, who was an assistant coach at California University (Pa.) in 2001, has coached in the PSAC for 17 years at three different universities. Prior to taking the assistant’s job at California he was an assistant coach at Shippensburg for 11 years, coaching from 1989 to 1996 and again from 1998 to 2000. He guided Millersville to an 11-15 record as the team’s head coach during the 1996-97 season.
Springer began his coaching career in 1985 as an assistant at Bridgton Academy in Bridgton, Maine. He became the head coach in 1986 and served two years before moving on to Shippensburg to pursue a master’s degree. During his three years at Bridgton, his teams compiled a record of 38-30.
Springer joined the Shippensburg coaching staff as a graduate assistant at the start of the 1988-89 academic year and he was promoted to full-time assistant coach the following year. He was on the staff in 1991 when Shippensburg won the PSAC championship and he assisted in the team’s drive to the PSAC West title in 1989.
While at Shippensburg, Springer built a reputation for hard work. He was an energetic teacher and a tireless recruiter. He also helped the team establish a support system for academics. That effort has paid dividends through the years, helping Shippensburg maintain high retention and graduation rates. Five players made the dean’s list in the spring of 2002.
Springer went to Millersville just before the start of the 1996-97 season to be the interim head coach. Among his accomplishments with the Marauders was the work he devoted to the Millersville department of athletics in its effort to organize an academic support program for the team. On the court, Millersville was in the hunt for a PSAC playoff berth until the last week of the season, winning eight of its last 13 games. One of the highlights of the year was an upset of PSAC champion Mansfield. It was the only conference loss of the season for the Mounties.
Springer spent seven summers coaching with Planet Basketball and The Hoop Camp. He has taken eight teams to Venezuela, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad-Tobago and Canada. In the summer of 1999 he took a senior team which included Shippensburg star Wayne Morris and six other All-PSAC players to Sweden. In the summer of 2000, before joining the staff at California, he helped organize the Shippensburg basketball team’s tour in Canada. The summer of 2003, he took Marcus Hudson and Chuck Davis on a six game tour to Toronto and Montreal.
Springer serves on the International Basketball Coaches Committee for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He is Vice-President on the Advisory Board of the Boys and Girls Clubhouse in Shippensburg. He worked with the Boys and Girls Club of Central Pennsylvania to open a Shippensburg Clubhouse in March of 2004. Under his direction, many Red Raider players have worked as counselors at the Boys and Girls Club.
Springer also began working to hold an annual "Food for the Hungry Game," in which students receive free admission to the game with the donation of a canned good. All proceeds have been donated to the local food bank, The King’s Kettle.
A 1984 graduate of Ohio University, Springer holds a degree in business. He grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and played basketball at Northridge High School, graduating in 1978. Springer earned his master’s degree from Shippensburg in communications studies in the fall of 1991. Springer, along with his wife Jackie and son Austin, live in Shippensburg.
