Ty Orton is entering his third season as Head Coach of Men’s Basketball program at Dickinson State University. During his second season at DSU, the Blue Hawks finished with a record 17-13. This was the first winning season in 4 years. During that period they hosted two play-off games, also for the first time in four years.Orton has a wealth of collegiate coaching experience and has set goals to "bring the Blue Hawks basketball team to the level of excellence that is present in other programs at DSU."
Orton comes from McCook Community College (MCC) in McCook, Neb. He was the head coach there for five seasons, compiling a 71-83 overall record. During his five years MCC won the conference once and finished second during two other seasons. Previously, Orton spent four seasons as an assistant coach for men’s and women’s basketball at Otero Junior College (La Junta, Colo.).
At MCC, Orton established himself as a defensive-minded leader who also recruited high quality student athletes. He feels confident that he can also attract the same type of successful individuals to DSU. In his MCC tenure, Orton had a 98 percent graduation rate of his players, 30 earned Academic All-NCCAC honors, 12 were named Academic All-American and four received Distinguished Academic All-American. His teams earned top-10 National Academic Honors four times and his 2004-05 team placed second nationally.
Orton’s skills from the sideline have been acknowledged as well. In 2004-05, he was named Coach of the Year for the NCCAC, East Sub-Region and Region IX.
As a collegian, Orton played at Eastern Wyoming Junior College (Torrington, Wyo.), and after earning his associate of arts degree in 1996, he played for Rocky Mountain College (Billings, Mont.). He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1998 in education and his master’s degree in exercise physiology in 2003 from Adams State College (Alamosa, Colo.) while simultaneously working as the head coach at McCook CC.
Orton is originally from Torrington, Wyo. His wife, Michelle, also has a basketball coaching background. She was the head coach of women’s basketball at MCC and was named coach of the year her last year at McCook CC. They have one son Tristan and expecting another child in February.