Greg Tonagel SPEAKING BIO

Greg Tonagel is the head men’s basketball coach at Indiana Wesleyan University.  Success and winning have followed Tonagel throughout his career as an athlete and into coaching.  As a high school junior in 1997 he led his LaPorte Slicers to the last single-class state finals.  His college career included 4 trips to the NCAA Tournament where he was the point guard and captain for the Valparaiso Crusaders.  After he finished playing and coaching at Valparaiso he took over the head coaching position at IWU at the age of 24.  Implementing the “I Am Third” mentality, Tonagel was able to take a team that finished last in conference and had only won 11 games the previous 2 seasons, to a team that won a school record 30 games and its first conference championship.  In 2014 the Wildcats reached the pinnacle of NAIA college basketball as they won their first ever National Championship.  The Wildcats followed up that feat by also winning the 2016 National Championship. 

Like you, Tonagel has seen the world define ‘winning’ numerous ways.  Is it all about the numbers?  The accolades or the success? Or is there a different story?  Coach Tonagel is passionate about leading men to become “third” in every aspect of their lives.  A culture where the coaching is focused more on people than basketball has yielded a sports ministry that is an alternative to the dominant culture seen and experienced in sports today.  The IWU basketball program has become a place where the transformation of lives is yielding the next generation of men who are answering the “call to be 3rd, in a world of 1st!”