Tony Nakashima enters his 3rd season as Head Coach at Walla Walla University.
In Nakashima's 2nd year, the Wolves had one of the best seasons ever, setting a couple historic milestones. The team finished the season with the most conference wins in school history, as well as winning back to back conference games for the first time in women's basketball history. Their historic season was led by Chariah Daniels (First Team All-Conference) and Jaliyah Casem (Honorable Mention All-Conference).
Nakashima joined WWU from Northern State University where he was an assistant coach with the women's basketball program for the 2020-2021 season. NSU went 5-9 overall in the shortened 2021 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with two student-athletes named to the NSIC All-Conference teams.
Nakashima spent the 2019-20 season at the University of Kentucky as the women’s basketball coaching video coordinator. Prior to the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19, Kentucky went 22-8 overall and 10-6 in the SEC. Overall, UK finished third in the SEC and were ranked top-20 nationally all season long, led by SEC Player of the Year Rhyne Howard.
From 2016-2019, Nakashima was an assistant coach at the University of Montana Western where the Bulldogs went 81-22 and qualified for three straight trips to the NAIA National Tournament. In 2018-2019, the Bulldogs won their first NAIA National Championship and saw two student-athletes earn All-American accolades; including NAIA and WBCA Player of the Year Bri King. During his time at UMW, Nakashima coached five All-Americans and seven Daktronics Scholar-Athletes.
Prior to his time at Montana Western, Nakashima was an assistant coach at Bethany College and Warner Pacific College. In addition, he coached with Team Concept, an AAU program out of Portland, Oregon.
Nakashima, a native Oregonian, went to Portland Adventist Academy and is a 2010 graduate of Pacific Union College with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.
