Nkwane Young was named to head women's basketball coach Mallory Bernhard's staff as an assistant coach in June 2020. He comes to North Dakota following a successful stint at Wayne County Community College as the head women's basketball coach.
North Dakota improved their record to 15-15 in the 2021-22 season after ending the 2020-21 season 2-19. Young was Bernhard's first addition to the staff prior to her interim season.
“Nkwane is an excellent addition to our program," Bernhard said at the time of his hiring. "It was important to me to bring in someone with head coaching experience, and he has proven himself to be a winner in all his head coaching stops. He did an absolutely incredible job at Wayne County Community College and he is very strong in player development. Nkwane brings a strong recruiting background in areas that we have targeted heavily. He has a wealth of successful experience at the club, high school, and collegiate level and I am thrilled he is joining the staff.”
Young's coaching career has spanned nearly two decades at the junior college, high school and club levels. Most recently, he guided WCCC to a 52-34 record in the past three seasons and was the 2018 MCCAA Coach of the Year and the 2019 NJCAA District Coach of the Year. He mentored the Wildcats to the school's first-ever NJCAA national tournament that season.
His resume also includes the head boys' basketball coach at Wayne Memorial High School, leading the Zebras to the school's first MHSAA district title in 21 years. He also served as the head coach at Detroit Frederick Douglass High (boys) and head boy's and girl's coach at Detroit Community High.
A former basketball and football player at Defiance College in northwest Ohio, Young has been in many different scenarios over his career. He started coaching junior high girls while he was in college, moved on to AAU ball for eight seasons and has mentored both high school girls and boys over 22 years with Detroit Western, Detroit Community and Detroit Frederick Douglass (whose boys he led to the Class B semifinals in 2013-14) before taking over at Wayne Memorial four years ago.
His family includes his wife Trentrice, son Nkwane, and daughter Laila.
