Sprinkle announces first staff
by Danny Waldo
The Danny Sprinkle era is off and running, and the former Bobcat great has brought back some familiar faces to help him return MSU to its glory days. Sprinkle, who was hired as the 23rd head coach of the Montana State men’s basketball program on April 4th, recently announced the members of his first staff, and most of the names will be familiar to Bobcat fans. Returning to the bench for the Bobcats are Chris Haslam and Luke Fennelly, while former assistant Shawn Dirden makes his return to Bozeman, and Dan Russell joins the Bobcat staff for the first time after serving as the head coach at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming.
Haslam has spent the past six seasons as an assistant coach for former head coach Brian Fish, and he will retain his role on Sprinkle’s staff for the upcoming season. Haslam has been instrumental in developing a recruiting pipeline in Europe that was instrumental in landing current Bobcat standout Harald Frey, and it is something that Sprinkle hopes to continue to exploit as he takes over the reins of Bobcat basketball.
“I’m very excited to keep Chris on staff,” Sprinkle said. “I’ve seen him work, seen him on the road recruiting and I’ve really respected the job he’s done. Obviously, he’s done a great job recruiting players to here. He has connections not only in the junior college ranks, but a ton of connections overseas which I think can be really beneficial to us.”
Luke Fennelly enters his seventh season with the Bobcat program, starting out as a graduate assistant for two seasons, then working his way up to Operations Director before spending the last two seasons as an assistant on Fish’s staff. He will return to the Operations Director position for the 2019-2020 season.
Shawn Dirden returns to Bozeman for his third stint on the Bobcat staff. Dirden served as an assistant coach from 2004-06 and again from 2012-2014. In between, he also made stops as an assistant coach at South Dakota and North Dakota. He has spent the past three seasons as the head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State where he compiled and overall record of 42-42.
“I worked with Shawn and I loved every minute of it,” Sprinkle said. “I thought he did a tremendous job relating to the student-athletes. He can sit on the phone with a kid for two hours. He loves the relationship part and he was one of the best skill development guys that I ever worked with in my 19 years as an assistant.
“I think he’s going to be very beneficial to our student-athletes. He’s not only invested on the court in their development, but he takes pride in developing them off the court.”
The final member of Sprinkle’s inaugural staff is Dan Russell, the former head coach of Casper College, where he guided the Thunderbirds to unprecedented heights. In his six seasons as head coach, Russell’s teams won over 20 games each year, including a 32-3 record this past season that culminated with an NJCAA Region IX championship for the first time in 23 years. Russell was also named the region’s coach of the year.
“I think Dan is an unbelievable get for our staff,” Sprinkle said. “He led his team to the national junior college tournament and he’s had unparalleled success at Casper College. He’s had tremendous players and teams there. I’ve recruited his program a lot. I’ve seen his work ethic and seen him coach in practice and games. I think Dan is really hungry and he’s been waiting to get to the Division I level.”
You can read all of the coach’s complete bios at www.msubobcats.com.
Danny Waldo is a local freelance writer, covering Montana State Bobcat athletics. •
