Tony Nakashima enters his 5th season as Head Coach at Walla Walla University in 2025-26.
During the 2024-25 season, the Wolves won three consecutive games for the first time in program history. Walla Walla earned victories against Evergreen State, Multnomah and Warner Pacific all by double figures. WWU also pushed eventual NAIA tournament team Oregon Tech to overtime on senior night and won the most home games in Walla Walla women's basketball history.
In Nakashima's second year, the Wolves had one of the best seasons ever, setting a couple historic milestones. The team finished the season with the most Cascade Conference wins in school history and tied for the most total wins in a season since the program joined the NAIA in 2009-10, 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). Under Nakashima, Casem was the leading scorer and the CCC with 17.8 PPG and Daniels led the conference in rebounds per game at 10.7.
A season later, Nakashima led the Wolves to an even better season. Walla Walla won nine regular season games, three more than any other season in program history and broke the previous conference record that the team set under Nakashima the previous year. Daniels was named First-Team All-Conference again and was also named Co-Defensive Player of the Year in the CCC.
In his first four seasons as the head coach of Walla Walla, Nakashima has led the program to as many wins as the previous nine years combined and has the most wins as a coach in WWU women's basketball history. His last three years at the helm have been the three most successful seasons for the program. Nakashima has played a large role in the Wolves earning CCC All-Conference recognition in all four years of his tenure. Walla Walla has had three All-Cascade Conference Honorable Mentions, two First-Team All-Cascade Conference First-Team selections and a Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
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 cancelation 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. 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 went to Portland Adventist Academy, attended Hawaii Pacific University and was a graduate of Pacific Union College with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.
