Men's Basketball Coaches/Staff

Hays

Dan Hays

Head Coach

With more than 600 victories in his coaching career, Dan Hays begins his 25th year at the helm of the Eagles. Hays ranks as the winningest coach in Oklahoma Christian history with a 513-271 record. He earned his 500th win at OC on the first day of the 2006-07 season (a 97-39 Homecoming victory over Oklahoma Wesleyan) and now owns a 651-390 overall career record.

The Eagles have won six of their league-best 10 Sooner Athletic Conference championships during Hays' tenure. He has led Oklahoma Christian to six NAIA tournaments, advancing to the Sweet 16 in five of those seasons.

Hays was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame at the 1998 national tournament and became a member of the Oklahoma Christian Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies on February 21, 2002. He was selected for the athletic hall of fame at Eastern New Mexico University, his alma mater, in 1996.

Hays has left his mark as a successful coach both on and off the court. In addition to coaching the Eagles to 20+ wins in 16 of the past 23 seasons, Hays has seen more than 90 percent of the seniors in his program complete their degrees. He also served as director of Oklahoma Christian's acclaimed Cage Camp program from 1984 to 2006.

In 1998, Hays, the NAIA representative to the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee, served as an assistant to Jim Boeheim of Syracuse University (N.Y.) on the USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team, which won the gold medal in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Hays also was an assistant to the University of Florida's Lon Kruger for the 1991 gold medal-winning USA team at the World Championships for Junior Men in Edmonton, Canada, and at the 1990 US Olympic Festival in Minneapolis, Minn. Hays served as president of the NAIA Coaches Association from 1991 to 1993.

He has earned Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors five times (1985, 1986, 1989, 1999, 2005) and NAIA District IX Coach of the Year honors twice (1981, 1985).

Hays came to Oklahoma Christian after five seasons as head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Hays was 71-68 at NWOSU and led his team to the NAIA District Nine Semifinals in the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons. His 1980-81 squad won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference Championship; he received OIC Coach of the Year honors in both 1981 and 1983.

Before becoming a head coach, Hays served as an assistant coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State University for three seasons and at Eastern Washington University for one year. He also coached for six years at the high school level in Grants and Roswell, N.M., guiding four teams to the New Mexico State Tournament.

Hays is a 1964 graduate of Highland High School in Albuquerque, N.M. He attended Casper (Wyo.) Junior College for one year before transferring to Eastern New Mexico. At ENMU, Hays was All-American Honorable Mention for two years and was named to the NAIA and NCAA All-District teams twice. He was the MVP and leading scorer on Coach Harry Miller's first two nationally-ranked Greyhound teams.

After graduating in 1968, Hays spent several years in the AAU leagues, played in three national tournaments and was selected to the AAU All-Stars that played against the Soviet Union in 1971.

The 61-year-old Hays holds master's degrees from Eastern New Mexico (physical education) and Eastern Washington (athletic administration).

He and his wife, JoAnn (Willoughby), have two daughters, Michelle and Stacie, and four grandchildren. Michelle and her husband David Lynn have two children: daughter Mackenzie and son Danny. Stacie and her husband Charlie Michael have two sons: Cale and Tate.

Curtis Janz

Associate Head Coach

Curtis Janz enters his 19th season as Associate Head Coach. A member of Hays' first team at Oklahoma Christian, Janz graduated in 1986 and stayed at OC to serve as a graduate assistant. He and Hays share a strong coaching philosophy and relationship that has developed the Eagles' basketball program into one of the finest in the NAIA.

Janz's responsibilities include directing the recruiting, monitoring the academic progress of players, on-the-floor coaching, scouting and game preparation.

A multi-talented coach and administrator, Janz received his master's degree in 1988 from the University of Central Oklahoma. He is an active member of the NAIA Coaches Association, the National Basketball Coaches Association and the Oklahoma Coaches Association.

Janz is the co-author of a textbook, “Basketball Skill Progressions,” with Jerry Krause of Gonzaga University (Wash.) and James Conn of Central Missouri State University. The text has been adopted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as a component of its Youth Basketball Instructional Packets. In 2003, Janz received the second-annual AFLAC National Assistant Coaches of the Year Award.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, the 44-year-old Janz is an associate professor and chairman of OC's physical education department. He also serves as co-director of the highly successful OC Cage Camps conducted each summer. Each year, approximately 3,000 young people attend the camps, which have attracted athletes from 47 states and 12 countries.

Janz is married to the former Kathryn Jones of Elk City, Okla. They are the parents of a daughter, Delaney.

Terril Hankins

Assistant Coach

Terril Hankins begins his fourth season on the Oklahoma Christian staff. He oversees OC's junior varsity program and participates in scouting, on-the-floor coaching and operational activities with the varsity team.

The 31-year-old Hankins is a native of Wilburton, Okla., and a 1999 graduate of East Central University (Okla.). From 2001 to 2004, he served as assistant basketball coach at Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City. Hankins earned a master's degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2001. He teaches fulltime at Oklahoma Christian Academy.

Hankins is a member of the Oklahoma Coaches Association and the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association. He is married to former Lady Eagle basketball player Jennifer Scott of Yukon, Okla. The couple has a daughter, Madelyn, and a son, Drake.

Ralph Nigro

Assistant Coach

Ralph Nigro, a 25-year coaching veteran, joins the OC staff after spending the past eight seasons as head coach at Edmond North High School (Okla.). Nigro took Edmond North to two Class 6A state tournaments, including the state semifinals in 2003. The 48-year-old was the Metro Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2007.

Nigro has 11 years of college head coaching experience after stints at St. Mary of the Plains (Kan.) (1988-1992) and Barat (Ill.) (1992-1999). He got his start in coaching under Dan Hays at Northwestern Oklahoma State in 1982. He made stops as a prep assistant in Colorado before serving as the head girls coach at Oklahoma City's Bishop McGuiness High School in 1987-88.

The Aurora, Colo., native graduated from St. Mary of the Plains in 1982 with a degree in psychology. He earned a master's degree in behavioral sciences from Northwestern Oklahoma State.

Marcus Smith

Student Coach

Nicole Walk

Program Assistant