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Men's Basketball Coaches/Staff

Dan Hays Head Coach dan.hays@oc.edu

With nearly 700 wins in his collegiate coaching career, Dan Hays begins his 29th season at the helm of the Eagles. With a 591-319 record at Oklahoma Christian University, Hays has recorded more wins than any coach in school history.

His overall college coaching record of 662-387 - which includes five seasons at Northwestern Oklahoma State - has him tied entering the season with legendary Southeastern Oklahoma State University coach Bloomer Sullivan for the most wins recorded by a men’s basketball coach at a four-year Oklahoma college.

Hays earned his 600th career collegiate win on Nov. 10, 2008, against Hillsdale Baptist, and he shows no signs of slowing down as he heads toward 700 wins and beyond.

The Eagles have won six of their 10 Sooner Athletic Conference championships during Hays’ tenure. He has led Oklahoma Christian to eight NAIA Division I tournaments and has reached the “Sweet 16” five times, most recently in 2010. He’s also coached two NAIA players of the year, Jay Mauck (1999) and Jarred Merrill (2005).

Hays was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame at the 1998 national tournament and became a member of the OC Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Feb. 21, 2002. He also was inducted into the athletic hall of fame at his alma mater, Eastern New Mexico University, in 1996.

In April 2011, OC honored Hays by naming the court inside the Eagles’ Nest “Dan Hays Court.”

Hays has left his mark as a successful coach both on and off the court. In addition to coaching the Eagles to 20 or more wins during 18 of the past 28 seasons, Hays has seen more than 90 percent of the seniors in his program complete their degrees. The last few years have also seen his squads designated as NAIA Scholar Teams due to high cumulative grade point averages.

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

Hays also was an assistant to then-University of Florida (and current University of Oklahoma) coach Lon Kruger on the 1991 gold-medal-winning USA team at the World Championships for Junior Men in Edmonton, Canada, and at the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival in Minneapolis. Hays served as the president of the NAIA Men’s Basketball Coaches Association from 1991 to 1993.

He has been named Sooner Athletic Conference coach of the year five times (1985, 1986, 1989, 1999, 2005) and NAIA District 9 coach of the year twice (1981, 1985).

Hays came to Oklahoma Christian after five seasons as head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva. Hays went 71-68 at Northwestern and led the Rangers to the NAIA District 9 semifinals during the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons. His 1980-81 squad won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference title and he was named OIC coach of the year in 1981 and 1983.

Before becoming a college head coach, Hays served as an assistant coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State for three seasons and at Eastern Washington University for one season. He also coached for six seasons at the high school level in two New Mexico towns, Grants and Roswell, guiding four teams to the New Mexico prep 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 earned All-America honorable mention twice and was named to the NAIA and NCAA all-district teams twice. He was the most valuable player and leading scorer on coach Harry Miller’s first two nationally ranked Greyhound teams.

After graduating in 1968, Hays spent several years in the Amateur Athletic Union leagues. He played in three national tournaments and was chosen to the AAU All-Stars team that played the Soviet Union’s national team in 1971.

Hays holds master’s degrees from Eastern New Mexico (physical education) and Eastern Washington (athletic administration).

His wife, JoAnn (Willoughby), is from Lovington, N.M. She holds a master’s degree in reading from Southeastern Oklahoma State and a master’s degree in gifted education from Northwestern Oklahoma State. She earned teacher of the year honors in Alva (1983) and at Putnam City Will Rogers Elementary School (1985), Edmond Summit Middle School (1990) and Edmond Santa Fe High School (2001). She is now retired from Edmond Public Schools. In 2011, she was inducted into Eastern New Mexico University’s Education Hall of Honor.

The couple lives in Edmond. They have two daughters, Stacie and Michelle, and four grandchildren. Michelle and her husband, David Lynn, have two children, daughter Mackenzie and son Danny, while Stacie and her husband, Charlie Michael, have two sons, Cale and Tate.

Terril Hankins Head Assistant Coach

Terril Hankins begins his 10th season on the Oklahoma Christian staff. His responsibilities include academic advising, scheduling, recruiting and scouting, on-the-floor coaching, individual player development and film exchanges. Hankins is also a physical education teacher at OC.

The 36-year-old Hankins is a native of Wilburton and a 1999 graduate of East Central University. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as an assistant basketball coach at Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City.

Hankins is a member of the Oklahoma Coaches Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. He is married to former OC women’s basketball player Jennifer Scott of Yukon. The couple has two daughters, Madelyn and Aleah, and a son, Drake.

Bob Battisti Assistant Coach

One of the most respected basketball coaches in Oklahoma, Bob Battisti is in his first season on Oklahoma Christian’s staff.

Battisti retired in July 2011 after 25 years at Northwestern Oklahoma State University - 21 as the head men’s coach and four as the Alva university’s athletic director.

From 1986 to 2007, he posted a 374-265 record with the Rangers, won six conference titles, made five NAIA tournament appearances (reaching the quarterfinals in 2007) and finished in the NAIA top 25 seven times. He was named a conference coach of the year five times and was selected in 1994 as the NAIA national coach of the year by Basketball Times.

Before arriving at Northwestern, Battisti served as an assistant coach at Bethany Lutheran (Minn.) for three seasons and as the head coach at Lakewood (Minn.) Community College for three seasons, where he posted a 35-31 record.

The Warren, Mich., native is a 1981 graduate of Minnesota State University-Mankato and earned his master’s degree in education in 1985 from the University of Minnesota.

Battisti and his wife, Shelly, have one son, Cooper, 15.

Rob McKinzie Assistant Coach Rob McKinzie is in the first year of his second stint on the Oklahoma Christian men’s basketball staff. From 2000 to 2003, McKinzie served as an assistant coach for the Eagles as well as the program’s junior varsity head coach. His current responsibilities on OC’s staff include video coordination, game tape exchange, defense, working with the Eagles’ post players and scouting. From 2007 to 2011, McKinzie was the owner of M.A.C. Basketball in North Little Rock, Ark. He served as a basketball and coaching consultant, providing private and group lessons, skills camps, program development and game analysis. He worked as Bartlesville High School’s head girls coach from 2003 to 2006 and as an assistant boys coach at Jenks High School from 2006 to 2007. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, York College (Neb.), where he worked as a men’s assistant coach from 1997 to 2000. The 36-year-old San Antonio native graduated from York in 1998 with a bachelor of arts degree in secondary physical education with a coaching endorsement. He earned his master’s degree in general education in 2001 from the University of Central Oklahoma. He’s married to Rachel (Herndon) McKinzie and the couple has two children, Adi and Austin. Caleb Panter Junior Varsity Coach Panter played at Oklahoma Christian from 2002 to 2005, helping the Eagles to a 69-31 record in that span. He was a member of the Eagles’ 2004-05 SAC championship team and played on two NAIA national tournament squads. Panter, in his fourth season on the OC staff, oversees the junior varsity program. A native of Sulphur Springs, Texas, Panter was a district most valuable player and Class 4A all-stater at Sulphur Springs High School. He graduated from OC in 2005 with a business degree. He currently works as a phase manager for OC’s on-campus apartments and is pursuing a law degree at Oklahoma City University. Panter is married to the former Addi Herndon (OC ’07) of Edmond, Okla. The Panters reside in Edmond and are active members of Memorial Road Church of Christ.

EAGLE EYE BLOG

Bobby Murcer Indoor Training Facility Walkthrough

Go on a walkthrough of the new Bobby Murcer Indoor Training Facility with head baseball coach Chuck White. Join us for OC’s first game of the season on Feb. 5 at 1 p.m. against St. Mary’s.

Kisorio, Mesta break OC 1,000-meter indoor record—Jan. 6, 2012

Hall of Fame Recap Video

Oklahoma Christian inducted its five newest Athletic Hall of Fame members on Friday, including a first for the university – a current student.

Men’s basketball star Charlie Smith, tennis coach Kris Miller, track standout Kathy (Nelson) Belcoff, softball ace Leah Carrell and current track and cross country All-American Silas Kisorio participated in the formal induction ceremony, held in OC’s Gaylord University Center.

Don Meyer, the NCAA leader in career men’s basketball coaching wins with 923, was the keynote speaker. The former coach at OC’s sister institution, Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., praised the five inductees for developing their athletic gifts and encouraged the 250 people in attendance to do the same with the gifts they’d been blessed with by God. Watch a video recapping the night’s events.