David B. Gottsleben
1953 -

Men's Track Head Coach at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion

David B. Gottsleben

Retirement in the summer of 2017

Long-time Coyote head coach Dave Gottsleben took on his new role as a volunteer assistant after his retirement in the summer of 2017. Gottsleben boasted a fruitful 33-year career at South Dakota.

    Gottsleben received his undergraduate (1975) and master's degree (1980) from South Dakota State. Gottsleben was twice named the NCAA Division II Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association. He has won more conference championships than any coach in USD history with 20 between men's cross country and men's indoor and outdoor track and field.

    Under Gottsleben, the Coyote men accumulated 125 All-America awards with seven NCAA titles and 13 NCAA runner-up performances. USD's lone NCAA Division II team title also came under Gottsleben at the 1997 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Gottsleben's teams captured 20 conference championships between the North Central Conference, the Great West Conference and the Summit League. The Coyotes were one of the most consistent teams in the NCC with six NCC titles, 15 runner-up performances and a pair of third-place efforts in the last 24 NCC meets.

    Gottsleben has been inducted to the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame (2015), Howard Wood Dakota Relays Hall of Fame (2016), the Drake Relays Hall of Fame (2017) and Sioux City Relays Hall of Fame (2001). He also received the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Track and Field Coaches Association Award in 1994 for his distinguished service to Division II track and field. Gottsleben and his wife, Helen, reside in Yankton. He has one daughter, Kendra.

Quelle: goyotes.com/coaches.aspx?rc=874 (Dezember 2018)

Seven-time regional coach of the year

By Vance Janak

Winning never gets old. Just ask Dave Gottsleben, the director of the South Dakota Track and Field Program. Gottsleben was named the Mondo/U.S. Track Coaches Association North Central Region Coach of the Year for the seventh time March 10.

    Although he first won the award in 1992, Gottsleben remains humble. In fact, he practically denies any credit in winning it. "The awards represent the program that we have here," Gottsleben said. "We have a great coaching staff and great kids here, so it is not all about me."

    Gottsleben guided his men's team to the 2005 North Central Conference Indoor Championship held in the DakotaDome this spring. The men's squad piled up 245 total team points, which is the second best total in the history of the NCC.

    In Gottsleben's opinion, this year's title maybe the sweetest for the program. "This is a group of kids who started working last January, but we did not have four returning All-Americans competing," Gottsleben said. "We started thinking that we would not be successful, but we started competing and the thoughts of winning started to evolve."

    At the conference meet, USD had eight individual and relay championships. Fourteen USD athletes also had qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships on March 11.

    This year's team may have exceeded everyone's expectations, including the coaches. "A lot of people thought we should not have won," Gottsleben said. "And we should not have won by 60 points. They definitely over performed there ability level."

    Gottsleben has coached at USD for 21 years and he has been named NCC coach of the years for either indoor or outdoor track and field eight times. He has had 127 student-athletes earn All-American honors to go along with four individual national champions. Helping these student-athletes reach there goals and become all-Americans and national champions is just part of the job for Gottsleben.

    "It is gratifying because some kids can come in here and have that goal," Gottsleben said. "To be apart of that is incredible."

    His teams have also included a third-place NCAA Division II finish at the 1997 indoor meet, a third-place finish at the 2000 outdoor national championships and a fourth-place finish at the 2001 indoor nationals. He has led his teams to seven finishs in the NCAA top 10.

    Despite what Gottsleben says about deserving the credit he has received, freshman hurdler Terry Liggins feels that Gottsleben is very deserving of the awards he has won.

    "He is a good coach and he puts a lot of effort into his job," Liggins said. "He has the special ability of getting us as a team to produce and get results. I really enjoy having him as my coach and I take it as a privilege to be coached by him."

    What is more important to Gottsleben is making sure that his student-athletes receive a good education. "I take pride in having four post-graduate NCAA scholarships winners from last season's team," Gottsleben said.

    Besides winning this season, Gottsleben has won the North Central Region Coach of the Year in 1992, '94, '97, '98, '00 and '02.

In his 21 years as director
of the Coyote track and field program,
Dave Gottsleben has won many award.
He was recently named
the Mondo/U.S. Track Coaches
Association North Central Region Coach of the Year

Originally published in Volante-Sports, issue: 3/23/05 (volanteOnline.com)

USD's Gottsleben Named Regional Coach Of The Year

VERMILLION -- Dave Gottsleben, the director of the South Dakota Track and Field Program, has been named one of eight NCAA Division II regional coaches of the year in an announcement by Mondo/U.S. Track Coaches Association.

    For the seventh time at USD, Gottleben was honored as the North Central Region Coach of the Year for 2005 after directing the Coyotes to the North Central Conference Indoor Championships held at the DakotaDome. His squad rolled up 245 points, which was the second best point total in the history of the NCC. At the meet, USD had eight individual or relay champions. In addition, 14 USD athletes had qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, which opens on Friday in Boston, Mass.

    Other honorees include Jack Maloney, Southern Connecticut State, Northeast Region; Steve Spence, Shippensburg, East Region; George Williams, St. Augustine's, Southeast Region; Jerry Baltes, Grand Valley State, Great Lakes Region; Jon Murray, Abilene Christian, South Central Region; and Alan Collatz, Cal-Bakersfield, West Region.

    Gottsleben, who is in his 21st season as head men's track and field coach at South Dakota, has been named NCC Coach of the Year, either indoor or outdoor, eight times in his tenure at USD. He has coached student-athletes that have earned 127 all-American honors, as well as four national champions, a third-place NCAA Division II finish at the 1997 indoor meet, a fourth-place finish at the 2001 indoor nationals and third-place at the 2000 outdoor national championships. He has led his teams to seven top-10 NCAA finishes.

    In 1997, he was named the Division II Men's National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track Coaches Association. In 1994 he received the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Track and Field Coaches Association Award for his distinguished service to Division II track.

    He was the North Central Region Coach of the Year in 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2005.

   Gottsleben, a native of Brookings, received his undergraduate (1975) and Master's degree (1980) from South Dakota State. Gottsleben was the head coach at Menno High School from 1975-1979, and head men's and women's track coach at Dakota State from 1979-1983.

Originally published in Yankton daily, Wednesday, March 16, 2005 (Story last updated at 1:46 AM on Mar. 16, 2005)

David B. Gottsleben,
native of Brookings, SD

South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame

VERMILLION - Dave Gottsleben, South Dakota head men’s track and field coach Dave Gottsleben will be inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. The Hall of Fame was established by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association in 1968 with a mission to preserve, document and display South Dakota’s sports history.

    A native of Brookings, S.D., Gottsleben is in his 31st season at the helm of Coyote track and field. Gottsleben has earned 18 conference Coach of the Year awards, eight Division II Regional Coach of the Year awards and two Division II National Coach of the Year awards in his time at South Dakota. He has guided the Coyotes to 16 conference titles (four in the Summit League, three in the Great West and nine in the North Central Conference).

    Gottsleben not only built the program into a power at the Division II level, but has guided South Dakota through a successful transition to Division I status. Gottsleben’s Coyotes have won three consecutive Summit League indoor titles and captured their first outdoor title last spring.

    At South Dakota, Gottsleben has coached athletes who have earned 165 All-America honors. He added his first Division I All-American in Teivaskie Lewin this March. Gottsleben also coached six national champions.

    "All of his athletes have a huge amount of respect for him because of how genuine he is and how much he cares about us as individuals,” said former athlete Jeff Mettler. “I am personally so grateful that he gave me a chance. He loves recruiting South Dakota athletes and developing us into the best athletes and people we can be. I ran harder because I wanted to return the favor and succeed for him."

    "Gottsleben gave me the chance of a lifetime,” said senior Kyle McKelvey. “He gave me a chance to have my education paid for and that is the most I could ask from anyone."

    "When Gottsleben was first hired as the new track coach at South Dakota, he invited me to run Morning Five with him and chat,” said distance coach and former athlete Dan Fitzsimmons. “By mid-run I knew I not only had a new coach, but someone I could relate and talk to. From that moment on, he has been my coach, mentor, one of my best friends and someone always there to listen when I need to talk. He has consistently been that way for each of his athletes over his entire career. Gottsleben has been a maker of men. His coaching philosophy is that all boys are good boys. Instead of judging a book by its cover, education and coaching are about giving people opportunity. While it may not make his life easier, he always has the best interest of his student-athletes at heart. That is what makes his coaching so admirable."

    Gottsleben and 20 others will be inducted on Saturday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. With this class of inductees, South Dakota’s Sports Hall of Fame will boast 266 members.

    A Brookings native and 1971 Montrose High and 1975 South Dakota State grad, Gottsleben is in his 31st season as the University of South Dakota head men's track and field coach.

    While at USD, he’s been a conference coach of the year a total of 18 times (in the North Central Conference, Great West and Summit League) and he was an eight-time regional coach of the year at the Division II level and twice a national coach of the year (1997 and 2006). He’s guided the Coyotes to 16 conference titles (nine in the NCC, four in the Summit and three in the Great West). Gottsleben not only built the program into a power at the NCAA Division II level but has guided USD through a successful transition to Division I status. Gottsleben’s Coyotes have won three straight Summit indoor titles and they won their first Summit outdoor title in 2014. This was the first outdoor team title since the NCC meet in 2006. After establishing the Coyotes as one of the top programs in the Division II NCC, Gottsleben continued that success when USD joined NCAA Division I and the Great West Conference. He guided USD to three straight indoor titles. The Coyotes finished second all three years at the outdoor conference meet.

    At USD he has coached athletes who have earned 165 All-American honors, as well as six national champions. He led his squads to eight top-10 finishes at Division II nationals, including third at the 1997 indoor and 2000 outdoor meets and fourth at the 2001 indoor and 2006 outdoor meets.

    In 1994 he received the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Track and Field Coaches Association Award for his distinguished service to Division II track. He was chosen the College Men's Coach of the Year by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association in 2000 and 2014. He's in the Sioux City Relays and Division II Coaches halls of fame, and he was an Honorary Referee at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays.

    Gottsleben was the coach at Menno High School from 1975-1979, and men's and women's track coach at Dakota State from 1980-1984, where he was SDIC coach of the year twice.

by Britni Waller, USD Sports Information.