Longtime college basketball coach Ed Douma embarks on his fourth
season as a volunteer assistant coach at Ferris State University in
2012-13.
He's no stranger to current FSU head coach Bill Sall, serving as
his collegiate coach at Calvin College. Sall also worked as
an assistant under Douma at both Calvin and Hillsdale prior to
taking over the Bulldog program.
Douma previously spent 32 seasons as a head coach at several
schools, posting a career record of 550-302 overall. He most
recently spent 11 years leading Hillsdale College and coached 13
seasons before that at his alma mater, Calvin College, where he was
a four-year starter. Two of his Hillsdale teams reached the
NCAA Division II Tournament.
He has also coached at Alma College (NCAA-III), fellow GLIAC
member Lake Superior State University (NAIA), Kent State University
(NCAA-I), and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro
(NCAA-III).
Winning has been a way of life in Douma-led basketball programs
with his greatest success
occurring in 1991-92 when he led the Calvin College Knights to the
NCAA Division III National Championship, sporting a 31-1 record
along the way. The 31 wins set Calvin College and Michigan
Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) records for victories
in a season. Douma was honored by the National Association of
Basketball coaches as their NCAA III Coach of the Year. During his
tenure at Calvin from 1984-1996, he posted 254 wins with 72 losses
for a scorching .793 winning percentage. Douma’s teams won
six MIAA titles and earned nine NCAA post-season berths. Besides
the national title, his squads gained entry to the quarterfinals
twice and the semifinals once.
Douma began his coaching career at the high school level in
Shelby, Michigan where he
won two Class C state championships. He moved on to the college
level at Alma College and
led the Scots to a 13-8 mark during the 1973-74 season. Lake
Superior State University was
Douma’s next destination where he headed up the Laker
program from 1974-78, posting four
straight winning seasons. The Lakers won two NAIA District 23
titles and qualified for the
NAIA National Tournament. The 1975-76 squad won 26 games and
advanced to the NAIA
quarterfinals. His career mark at LSSU was 81 wins and 25
losses.
Douma next coached at NCAA Division I Kent State University, where
he coached from
1978-82. In 1982, he moved on to UNC-Greensboro, an NCAA Division
III team at that time.
Before returning to Calvin College in 1984, he averaged 14 wins
over two seasons at UNC Greensboro before coaching an Athletes in
Action team that toured South America.
Douma is a native of Grand Rapids and Muskegon who earned his
bachelor’s degree at Calvin College, majoring in English. He
also was a four-year varsity standout on the Knight basketball
team.
Douma was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of
Michigan Hall of Fame
in October 1995, the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame in June
1998 and the Lake Superior
State College Hall of Fame in October 1998.
Before all of that, Douma was a key player on Western Michigan
Christian's 1962 Class C state championship team.