Former AHS athlete carves coaching career
By Sam Waller
Tom Dibbern has transferred the success he enjoyed as an Albany athlete into a stellar coaching career in the college ranks.
A 1996 Albany graduate, Dibbern is in his sixth year as head track and field coach for the Angelo State men’s and women’s teams.
Dibbern, who was known as Tom Londerholm in high school, was a four-sport athlete in high school, competing in football, basketball, and baseball. In track and field, he was a two-time state qualifier in the high jump, earning a silver medal at the state meet his senior year. He also competed in the triple jump, hurdles, and sprint relay.
Dibbern said Paul Johnston, his high school track coach, had a big influence on his career path.
“I just figured out early that if it matters, you can make stuff happen,” Dibbern said. “Coach Johnston always found a way to make stuff happen.”
Dibbern said Johnston was able to help athletes competing in events outside his area of expertise achieve success.
“He was more of a throwing guy, but he always made sure the rest of us got the tools and the knowledge we needed,” Dibbern said. “To me, that was the biggest thing – the effort he put in to making sure everybody was successful.”
Dibbern said one lesson he learned during his high school career was that competitiveness could offset a lack of physical ability.
“You’ve got to be competitive if you’re going to be a college athlete,” he said. “The rest of it’s necessary, but if you’re not a competitor, then you’re not going to be successful.”
Dibbern walked on at Angelo State, competing in the triple jump and decathlon. He earned a degree in kinesiology in 2001 and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Hastings College in Nebraska, where he earned a master’s degree before serving as an assistant at Oklahoma Baptist.
He made his first return to Angelo State in 2005 as an assistant coach. After a two-year stint as head coach at Texas A&M Commerce, where the Lions became the first team to win the Lone Star Conference Indoor and Outdoor titles in the same year, he again returned to Angelo State as associate head coach before being elevated to head coach in 2016. He also serves as head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country teams.
Under Dibbern’s leadership, the Rams and Rambelles have produced nine individual NCAA Division II national champions, including Albany’s Kami Norton, who won both the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon titles in 2018. Dibbern’s athletes have earned first-team all-American status 64 times.
Other Albany graduates who have competed for Dibbern at Angelo State include distance runner Valerie Gandera and pole vaulter Levi Britting.
Among his former athletes are women’s discus thrower Daisy Osakue, who reached the finals at the Tokyo Olympics this summer competing for Italy, and Ashley Dendy, daughter of Albany native Heather Ruff.
The ASU men’s team has finished in the top three at the national meet the last three years.
Through it all, Dibbern remains connected to his small-town roots.
“I like small-town kids, and I recruit a lot of small-town kids,” he said.
