MISHAWAKA – David Osborn took a few seconds to compose himself before he spoke a word on Thursday, April 16. He stood behind a Bethel University podium and in front of a blue Bethel Pilots Athletics backdrop.
Osborn had just hugged and shaken the hand of Bethel’s Director of Athletics, Jason Lewkowicz, who had just given a brief address as to why Osborn was the right fit to be the Pilots’ new head men’s basketball coach. Lewkowicz compared his hiring process to that of the plot of 2014 film “Draft Day,” a fictional drama about an NFL general manager named Sonny Weaver Jr. deciding who to select with the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
Throughout the film, it was evident that Weaver Jr. had a green piece of paper with something important written on it, never to be shown until the end of the film. “Vontae Mack, no matter what,” the note read, making it clear Weaver Jr. had made up his mind about who he wanted to draft before any of the film’s events had even transpired.
Guess who Weaver Jr. picked in the draft?
Lewkowicz said he identified with this fictional general manager − who was played by Kevin Costner − after the dust settled following seven-year head coach Steve Drabyn’s departure from Bethel for Marian University on April 7. As soon as Lewkowicz focused on who to hire next, his first thought was Osborn.
Nine days later, there stood Osborn with tears in his eyes on Bethel’s campus. Facing him in the front row were his wife, Amber, his four children (soon to be five), his parents, and his in-laws. Amber, too, was wiping tears from her cheeks.
“I get emotional every once in a while, so I’ll try to keep it together here today,” David Osborn said.
He delivered on that goal, quickly shifting his focus to various “thank yous” and then a lengthy mission statement. Osborn comes from the soon-to-be-defunct Trinity Christian College in Illinois, where he compiled a 25-33 record in two seasons as the Trolls’ head coach.
Before that, Osborn spent six seasons as an assistant at Indiana Wesleyan, during which time the Wildcats won the 2018 NAIA National Championship. Osborn heads into a Pilots program coming off a 2025-26 season in which Bethel went 26-9 and finished third in the Crossroads League behind Indiana Wesleyan and Grace College.
As a student at Indiana University, Osborn became a manager for the Hoosiers’ men’s basketball team under head coach Tom Crean. He is also a Homestead High School graduate, just over 80 miles away from his new home in Mishawaka.
With all of this basketball experience and knowledge of his home state in mind, Osborn said he plans to focus his recruiting efforts toward bringing in Indiana kids. The Pilots had 10 Hoosiers on their roster last season.
“There’s just an energy and an excitement and a passion for this place and what’s going on,” Osborn said. “It’s so encouraging – you can just feel it.”
Numerous Bethel players sat a few rows behind Osborn’s family during the press conference, and Osborn spouted out countless mantras on which he plans to build his program.
Although many of Osborn’s coaching cornerstones have been developed during his time on the collegiate scene, he said he was still in high school when he first began viewing basketball differently. Osborn attended a Point Guard College camp, where he didn’t just fine-tune his on-court skills, but his mentality as well.
While his playing career didn’t last much longer, it was then that he first thought about “doing life” with basketball. Fresh out of college a few years later, Osborn took a corporate finance job, and he hardly lasted until his lunch break on the first day before calling his parents to tell them he wanted to quit.
That wasn’t his passion. He stuck with it for two years, even briefly moving to Europe for work, but enough was enough, and he took a high school coaching job at Illinois-based Wheaton Academy in 2015.
Eleven years later, and Osborn was making his second collegiate head coaching job official at Bethel.
“When you seek to invest in the lives of these student-athletes, they end up helping you grow as well,” Osborn said. “A little bit selfishly, I’m being stretched and pushed in different ways because I get the chance to coach these guys.”
In this new age of college basketball – even at the NAIA level – financial support is more of a factor than ever. Osborn offered that up himself, but he also expressed confidence that Bethel was in a good spot to help him bring the Pilots the success he envisions.
If that’s the case, Osborn certainly doesn’t lack the experience, or perhaps more crucially, the passion, to do so.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: David Osborn introduced as new Bethel University men’s basketball head coach
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
