 Head Coach Chip Wilde
The owner of more than two decades of coaching experience at the collegiate level, Chip Wilde will enter his fifth season as head coach of the Eureka College men’s basketball team in 2011-12. The upcoming campaign marks Wilde’s 14th season as a collegiate basketball head coach.
Wilde has proved to be one of the most successful head coaches in the history of Eureka’s storied men’s basketball program. The Macomb, Ill. native has directed the Red Devils to an average of 10.5 wins in each of his first four seasons, the fourth-best single-season average among the 15 head coaches in the program’s history. He is also poised to jump to fifth place on the all-time Eureka coaching wins list, and can climb as high as fourth on the list in 2011-12.
The Red Devils have been a regular contender in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season standings since Wilde’s arrival, as Wilde became the third head coach since 1974 to lead Eureka to a conference tournament championship game when Eureka played for the SLIAC crown in 2010. During Eureka’s 2010 postseason run, Wilde directed the Red Devils to 17 victories, the most by a Eureka squad since the 2003-04 season. Eureka won 10 league games during the season for a third-place finish and posted a 20-point victory over MacMurray in the league tournament semifinals, the second SLIAC postseason victory in any sport in school history.
Using Wilde’s innovative offensive style, seniors Michael Zasada and Kameron Bell became just the second set of teammates in the 90-year history of the program to each surpass 500 points in the same season. Both players also recorded two of the top-10 single-season rebounding performances in program history, while Zasada closed his career with 863 boards for second place on the all-time Eureka list.
Eureka has earned a total of six postseason All-SLIAC selections in Wilde’s four seasons as head coach, including the 2010 SLIAC Player of the Year award for Zasada. The Red Devils also placed a pair of players on the 2010 SLIAC Tournament Team. Bell, who entered the program in 2008 as one of Wilde’s first junior college recruits, scored a single-game Eureka record 44 points in a victory at Rockford on Nov. 18, 2009.
A tireless recruiter, Wilde regularly welcomes large recruiting classes featuring incoming freshmen and junior college transfers. Over the previous two offseasons, Wilde has successfully recruited a total of 18 student-athletes to the men’s basketball program.
 Prior to taking over the Eureka men’s basketball program in the summer of 2007, Wilde spent eight seasons as part of an NCAA Division I staff. He was the Coordinator of Basketball Operations at Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J. from 2004-06. Following that stint, he was an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan during the 2006-07 season. His other Division I stops include three seasons as an undergraduate assistant at Western Illinois and two seasons as an assistant coach at Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Wilde served as the men’s basketball head coach (1997-2003) and women’s basketball head coach (1994-97) at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich. In 2001, he led the Cardinals to the NCCAA Men’s National Tournament and was named NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year. Wilde also served as the university’s Director of Athletics from 1997-98. His career has also included a season as an assistant coach at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas. While at Collin County, Wilde helped the Cougars finish the season ranked second nationally n the NJCAA.
Wilde earned a B.S. in Physical Education from Western Illinois University in 1991 before earning his master’s degree from WIU in 1994. In addition to his men’s basketball duties, Wilde is an assistant professor in the Eureka College physical education department. Always involved in teaching the game, Wilde and his staff conduct an annual youth summer basketball camp at Eureka, as well as a Fall Hoops Festival for area youths in the month of November. Wilde resides in Normal with his wife Darby and 3-year old daughter Zoey.
 Assistant Coach Amos Arbogast
Amos Arbogast will join the Eureka College men’s basketball coaching staff in 2011-12.
A native of Ankeny, Iowa, Arbogast graduated from Ankeny High School in 2002. He was a three-sport student-athlete for the Hawks, participating in football, basketball and tennis. Arbogast helped the Hawks’ football squad to a semifinal appearance in the 4A state playoffs as a senior in 2001, the largest classification in the Iowa High School Athletic Assocation. He also played a role on the Hawks’ basketball squad that earned a fourth-place state finish during the 2001-02 season.
Arbogast attended the University of Iowa, earning a B.A. in psychology in 2006.
He began his basketball coaching career prior to the 2009-10 season as an assistant coach at Tri-Valley High School in Downs, Ill. In addition to his varsity duties that included an appearance in the IHSA 1A regional finals in 2011, Arbogast directed the Vikings’ freshman squad during the 2010-11 season.
Arbogast married the former Colleen McGlaughlin in January 2010. The Morton, Ill. native was a four-year softball letterwinner at Division I Iowa from 2006 through 2009. She was a three-time All-Big Ten choice as a corner infielder and outfielder and was a two-time Academic All-American for the Hawkeyes.
 Assistant Coach Josh Young
Josh Young will begin his collegiate coaching career in 2011-12, joining the Chip Wilde’s staff for his first season.
Young graduated from Pine-Richland High School in Gibsonia, Penn. in 2002. He was a four-year player on the basketball court, helping the Rams to a fourth-place state finish in the largest class of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association as a junior in 2001. Young also played baseball, contributing as a first baseman.
Following his prep career, Young was a two-year collegiate letterwinner at small forward for Penn State Beaver, a United States Collegiate Athletic Association member school in Monaca, Penn. He transferred to the Penn State main campus in State College, Pa. in 2004 and earned a B.A. in psychology in 2006.
The Wexford, Penn. native went on to attend graduate school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He received his M.S.Ed. in community counseling in May 2009.
Young spent the previous two years working at an academic advisor at Argosy University. He currently teaches online psychology courses at Argosy.
Young and his wife, Jessica, were married in August 2009. |
