Ferris State National Champion Assistant Jim Lake Tabbed As Head Coach At Wisconsin-Stout

Big Rapids, Mich. - Ferris State University men's basketball assistant coach Jim Lake, who helped lead FSU to the school's first NCAA Division II National Championship this past season, has officially been tabbed as the new head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Lake has been the Bulldogs' top assistant coach for the past five seasons and served on the FSU staff for more than a decade in two different stints. This past season, his efforts helped the Bulldogs match the all-time NCAA Division II record for wins as the squad posted a 38-1 overall mark under head coach and National Coach of the Year Andy Bronkema.

"There's no way we would have accomplished any of the things we did without Coach Lake," Bronkema said. "He's been involved in every aspect of the program. We're going to miss him, but he deserves this opportunity and I know it has been a goal of his to be a head coach.

"I wish Coach Lake, his wife Kara and their entire family the best of luck moving forward. He's been patient and I feel he's now been rewarded for it with this opportunity. We appreciate all he did for Ferris State Basketball," he added.

Lake began his tenure as a volunteer assistant coach on the FSU staff from 2003-06 under former head coach Bill Sall. After going back to the high school ranks as the head coach nearby at Chippewa Hills High School, he returned to the Bulldog staff in 2011 and was eventually promoted to the program's full-time top assistant position in 2013 when Bronkema took over the Bulldog program.

In his five seasons as the Bulldogs' top assistant, Ferris State has made four consecutive NCAA Division II Tournament appearances, won four-straight Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament titles, claimed back-to-back GLIAC Regular Season Championships and won the Midwest Regional title this year before capping off the most historic season in school history with a national championship.

He will take over a Wisconsin-Stout program that competes at the NCAA Division III level in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).

"We are excited to have Jim Lake lead the Blue Devils' men's basketball program," said Erin Sullivan, associate athletic director and search committee chair. "Jim comes from a program that exudes success, not just on the court, but in all that they do."

As an assistant coach, Lake was heavily involved with nearly every facet of the program such as recruiting, player development, academics and organizing summer camps. He's also played a key role in administrative and fundraising duties as the top assistant.

"Jim has worked very closely in building a successful program and we look forward to him extending a high level of success across the entire Blue Devils men's basketball program," said UW-Stout Athletic Director Duey Naatz.

This past season, the Bulldogs made their fourth-straight NCAA Division II Tournament appearance and reached the D2 Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years prior to winning the national title. FSU closed the year with a school-record 26-game winning streak and avenged its only loss to Lake Superior State three times in the second half of the year.

The previous season, in 2016-17, the Bulldogs compiled a then school all-time best 28-5 overall record while winning both the GLIAC's regular season and tournament titles and advancing to the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Semifinals. It came on the heels of an impressive 2015-16 campaign in which FSU went 24-10 overall record, reaching the NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen while finishing with the program's first back-to-back 20-win campaigns since the late 1980's.

Lake began his collegiate coaching career with the Bulldogs as a volunteer assistant under Sall from 2003-06. During that time, the Bulldogs claimed back-to-back GLIAC North Division championships and made two-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen showing in 2004-05. After leaving the Bulldog program, he returned to FSU in 2011-12 and helped the Bulldogs to a share of a second-straight GLIAC North Division crown in his first season back with the program.

In addition to his collegiate coaching background with the Bulldogs, Lake also compiled nearly 17 years of coaching experience at the high school level, including nine seasons as a varsity basketball coach at both the Class B and D levels in Michigan. During the 1996-97 campaign at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Academy, he was the youngest (21) head coach for a Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) member school.

Besides serving as a prep coach, Lake was also a teacher in the Chippewa Hills school district and served as the school's varsity basketball coach. In his time away from the Bulldog program, he also served as an AAU coach for the Grand Rapids Storm. During his time with the Storm, as a 16-and-under coach, he compiled a 123-32 mark while coaching 35 players who moved on to collegiate basketball, including 11 NCAA Division I players and several who have played in the GLIAC.

Lake received his bachelor's in Education with an emphasis in social studies and a minor in history from Central Michigan University in 1999. He later earned a master's in Sports and Recreation with an emphasis in coaching from Ohio University.

A native of Spokane, Wash., Lake was raised in Michigan and graduated from North Branch (Mich.) High School in 1994, participating in football and basketball, earning all-area and all-conference football accolades.

Lake and his wife, Kara, have two children, Abigail and Peter.

He becomes the 16th coach of the Wisconsin-Stout men's basketball program dating back to the program's inception in 1907.