Tony Stennett joined the Pioneer men’s basketball program as an assistant coach prior to the 2022-23 season.

Stennett comes to Wayland after spending the 2021-22 season at Lamar Community College (Colo.). Prior to that, Stennett spent four years at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan., helping transform the program from a seven-win team that did not make the conference tournament into an 18-win team that hosted a conference tournament game each of the last three seasons he was there. The Coyotes had the two highest wins in program history, both against top-10 teams, while Stennett was the lead scout.

During his time, KWU had several All-KCAC performers recognized, which included the 2017-18 Defensive Player of the Year and the 2018-19 Newcomer of the Year, both within Stennett’s position group. The Coyotes also were a great defensive team during the time Stennett spent in Salina. In 2018-19, the Coyotes were second in the country in defensive three-point field goal percentage (.298) and were seventh in the nation in scoring defense, holding teams to 68.5 points per game. They were regularly in the top-20 in those categories, along with steals per game, defensive field goal percentage, blocks per game and turnover margin.

Prior to coaching at KWU, Stennett was the sports information director and a volunteer coach at Bethany College (Kan.). As the SID, he brought the athletic communication to new heights. While there all three years the website was voted top-10 in the NAIA for outsourced websites, created the athletic department Instagram, and implemented game highlights on the athletic website and YouTube. In a single year, the school athletic website had more than 98,700 first-time viewers. As a coach, Stennett primarily helped with the junior varsity roster, travel logistics and summer youth camp.

Stennett played basketball in college at Trine University in Angola, Ind. After his playing career, he transferred to Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind., to finish his degree. While at Grace, Stennett coached at Lakeland Christian Academy, worked in the summer at Kids Across America 3 as a counselor and was head of basketball specialty.

A native of Fennville, Mich., Stennett is a 2013 graduate of Grace College with a double major in business administration and sports management, with a focused background in communication. He was inducted into the Alpha Chi National Honor Scholarship Society in 2012 and into the Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society in Business, Management and Administration in 2013. He earned his Master’s of Business Administration from Kansas Wesleyan in 2018.