Brian Ortmeier was named head women’s basketball coach at Wayne State College on April 30th, becoming the 12th head coach in the 55-year history of the program.
Ortmeier brings 16 years of collegiate experience to the Wildcat bench and inherits a program that was 11-16 last season with an 8-14 mark in the NSIC. He comes to Wayne after leading the Briar Cliff women’s basketball team the last three seasons to an 80-24 record that included 15 wins over NAIA Top 25 teams.
Last season, Ortmeier led the Chargers to a 30-6 season and a third straight trip to the NAIA National Tournament that ended with a national semi-final appearance and a final ranking of fifth in NAIA. Under Ortmeier in the other two seasons at Briar Cliff, the Chargers posted records of 24-10 in the 2023-24 season (NAIA Elite 8) and a 26-8 record in his first year at BCU in 2022-23 with a trip to the NAIA Sweet 16 while also winning the school’s first-ever Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament title.
Other coaching stops for Ortmeier include two years (2020-22) at Iowa Central Community College, leading the Tritons to a 37-18 record and one trip to the Elite 8 of the NJCAA National Tournament. He also served four years as head coach at Laramie County Community College in Wyoming, where he re-started a program and built the team into a conference championship contender his last two seasons with records of 19-12 and 18-13.
Ortmeier also served as head coach for two seasons at Colorado Northwestern Community College (2014-16) where he took over a two-win program and finished 10-19 in his second season. He began his coaching career at the University of Richmond as a graduate assistant and was an assistant coach at McPherson College from 2010-13 before spending one year at Dakota State as an assistant coach.
A native of Dodge, Ortmeier earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Nebraska and obtained a master’s degree in sport leadership and health and human performance from Virginia Commonwealth University.
