Johnathan Peña
Sports Editor
Chris Dial will officially join Texas A&M University-San Antonio on March 18 as the head coach of the men’s basketball program launching in the 2024-2025 season.
Dial has coached five seasons at Our Lady of the Lake University and is a member of the National Association of Inaugural Athletics and Red River Athletic Conference.
Dial said he heard about A&M-San Antonio starting a basketball program next year.
“I just kind of knew that this was an up-and-coming program and there was a lot of buzz around the inception of basketball,” Dial said. “Learning that I was selected and being from this part of town, I was really humbled and honored to lead the program and contribute to the athletic department.”
Dial’s goal for the basketball program is to build champions out of the incoming student-athletes.
“Basketball encompasses many things like winning and competing every day; A champion is not going to be somebody who has success right off the floor,” Dial said. “We’re responsible for the young men coming in and emulating high character and integrity as student-athletes within the community and academics.”
Dial’s background in coaching goes beyond OLLU, as he previously coached internationally and at several San Antonio area high schools – St. Gerard Catholic, McCollum, John Paul II Catholic and New Braunfels high schools.
“This is an opportunity to build, especially with a new program, there are going to be growing pains,” Dial said. “Having an adaptive mindset, patience and mentality that will get a product on the floor that everyone is proud of at A&M-San Antonio.”
Dial began his tenure at OLLU in the 2019-2020 season and in his five years with OLLU, he has accumulated a record of 46-79. Two of his teams qualified for the Red River Athletic Conference Championship tournament.
“Since I’ve been at OLLU, I’ve always scheduled against NCAA division 1’s. Some coaches would not do that because they want to protect their record,” Dial said. “I never had that mindset. I’m just trying to play the best teams that make the tournament.”
Our Lady of the Lake University Saints played their last home game of the regular season on Feb. 27 against Huston-Tillotson University Rams, marking it as Dial’s farewell to OLLU.
