Bio

Baker University head men's basketball coach Sean Dooley enters his 12th year with the Wildcats and has collected 151 wins which ranks third all-time in program history.

In 2022-23, Dooley led the Wildcats to one of the program's best season with a 22-9 overall record, while advancing to the NAIA Tournament for the fifth time in school history and first time since 2012. Baker won nine of its first 10 games to start the year and defeated No. 7 William Penn in a thrilling overtime game to clinch its spot in the conference tournament. The Wildcats reached the semifinals of the Heart Tournament after beating MidAmerica Nazarene in double overtime at home in the quarterfinals.

Dooley coached an NAIA All-American with Jalen Patterson earning the postseason honor as well as being a first team all-conference selection along with teammate Quentin Harvey. Overall, the Wildcats had five players earn postseason recognition from the conference with Noah Rigatuso (2nd), Braden Wiggs (HM) and Korey Jones (All-Defensive) joining Patterson and Harvey on the Heart’s All-Conference Teams.

The 2020-21 team closed out their season by winning seven of their last eight games to post an overall record of 15-9 and 12-7 in Heart of America play. They reached the conference tournament for the second straight year and had a first team all-conference selection in Jalen Patterson.

In 2019-20, Dooley and the Wildcats went 13-11 in conference play and secured a spot as the No. 6 seed in the Heart Tournament.

During the 2017-18 campaign, the Wildcats started out the season 7-0, marking their best start to a season since 2006-07 when they started out 5-0. BU would enter as the No. 5 seed in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament, and garnered three Heart Conference Honorable Mention players including Clae Martin, Tyree Peter, and Stephen Edwards.

In 2016-17, Coach Dooley led the 'Cats to a 17-15 overall record and spot in the Heart Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 8 seed. Javeion Gray highlighted the season by recording his 1,000 career point against Mt. Mercy on Dec. 3. He ended his career with 1,249 points and was named to the Second Team All-Conference his senior season, his third-straight season named to the All-Conference team. Taylor Johnson also became the programs first-ever athlete to be named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Men's Basketball team.

In 2015-16, Baker captured its second Heart of America Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in a three year span, as Clae Martin was named the Heart Freshman of the Year.

Under Dooley's leadership he helped develop freshman Javeion Gray into the 2013-14 Heart Freshman of the Year honor and EJ Carter was named to the Honorable Mention All-Heart squad. Carter also was awarded with the prestigious NAIA Scholar-Athlete award for his work off of the basketball court.

In his first season as the head coach of the Wildcats, Sean Dooley led the Wildcats to a winning record of 15-14 and finished sixth in the Heart of America Athletic Conference standings.

Baker jumped out to an impressive 6-1 start and won six straight from Nov. 6 - Nov. 20. The Wildcats then went 8-10 throughout the Heart regular season and took on MidAmerica Nazarene in the First Round of the Heart conference tournament competing with the nationally ranked Pioneers all the way until the final whistle, eventually falling to MNU, 69-68.

Baker earned awards both for their ability on the floor and in the classroom under Dooley's leadership in 2012-13, as Ben Steinlage earned a spot on the Heart Second Team All-Conference and Cory Anderson was named to the Heart Honorable Mention All-Conference team.

As a team, Baker was named a NAIA Scholar Team and was awarded the inaugural National Association of Basketball Coaches Team Academic Excellence Award for accumulating a team GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Individually, four Wildcats were named to the NABC Honors Court for earning a GPA of 3.2 or higher, as Kevin Lysaught Steinlage, Julian Mills and EJ Carter all took home the honor. Lysaught also became one of just 60 men's basketball players in the NAIA Division I to earn the Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete award.

On April 27, 2012, Dooley was named the 26th head coach in Baker University men's basketball history. Dooley came to Baker after serving as NAIA Hall of Fame Coach Bob Burchard's lead assistant for the past five seasons at Columbia College. There, Dooley was in charge of several areas including, recruiting, scouting, player development, and monitoring of academic performance.

While at Columbia, Dooley helped guide the Cougars to an overall record of 121-49 (.712) including two regular season American Midwest Conference Championships. During his time with the Cougars, the team also enjoyed many post-season successes including, winning the American Midwest Conference Tournament Championship in 2009 and 2012, and making four NAIA Division I National Tournament appearances (2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012).

In 2012, the Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16, and in 2009 they made it further than any other team in school history by participating in the National Championship game. With Dooley’s assistance, Columbia has been highly regarded as one of the top defensive teams in the NAIA. The Cougars were ranked as the number 1 team in scoring defense for the 2011 season, and ranked number 2 for the 2012 season.

During his career at Columbia, Dooley helped many of his players earn individual accolades, both on the court and in the classroom. Over the five year period, four were named NAIA All Americans, 11 were named to the American Midwest All Conference Team; including the 2011 Freshman of the Year, 2011 Newcomer of the Year and the 2012 Conference Player of the Year. The Cougar student-athletes achieved equal level of success in the classroom with 24 being named to the American Midwest Academic All-Conference Team, and eight earning NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors.

Dooley began his collegiate coaching career when he assisted another NAIA Hall of Fame Coach, Larry Holley, at William Jewell College. Dooley was an assistant at Jewell for three seasons, and held multiple titles while on staff. He was the Head Coach of the junior varsity squad during his first two seasons with the Cardinals, while also assisting the varsity squad with scouting, recruiting, and leading their strength and conditioning program. During his last season with the Cardinals, he was Coach Holley's lead assistant and directed all of William Jewell's recruiting efforts. During his time at William Jewell, Dooley helped guide the Cardinals to three consecutive winning seasons, which included two appearances in the NAIA Division II National Tournament. Due to the team's success, several Cardinals were recognized for their play, including 10 named to the Heart of America All Conference team, and four named NAIA Division II All-Americans.

Prior to his career at William Jewell, Dooley was a graduate assistant in the athletics department at University of Missouri-Kansas City. While at UMKC, Dooley was the athletics department promotions coordinator and assisted with game operations, ticket sales, and various marketing and sponsorship campaigns. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Educational Administration in May 2004.

Dooley began his collegiate playing career in 1998 at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, playing for the legendary Fred Pohlman. While at Penn Valley, Dooley made the All-Region Team both in his freshman and sophomore seasons, and helped lead the team during his sophomore season to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament. After two seasons at Penn Valley, Dooley moved on to Columbia College to complete his collegiate career. While at Columbia, the Cougars went 57-12, won one American Midwest Conference Regular Season championship, won one American Midwest Conference Tournament Championship and advanced to two NAIA Division I National Tournaments. For his efforts, Dooley was named to the American Midwest Conference First Team during both seasons at Columbia. He concluded his time at Columbia by being named Columbia College Male Athlete of the Year and earning a Bachelors of Arts in Business Administration degree in May 2002.

Sean and his wife, Nikki, have two sons, Jackson and Joey, and a daughter, Jordyn.