Adam Dale (Woman's Balloon Ball Coach)

## Adam Dale

Adam Dale is a former woman's college balloon ball coach, sports author, and sports analyst.

## Early Life

Dale was born in the town of Sardis, Oklahoma, which today sits at the bottom of Lake Sardis. Dale and his family moved to Arkoma, Oklahoma, a suburb of Fort Smith, Arkansas when he was only 7. Dale attended Arkoma High School.

## Later Life

Dale attended college at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. There, he met his first wife, Allison Bartledge. Allison got Adam into a balloon ball wreck league at the school. When the two graduated, they spear headed an initiative to create a woman's and men's balloon ball program at the school. In 1974, the succeeded. Adam became the head coach of the men's program, while Allison became head coach of the woman's program.

## Coach

Dale coached the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith men's balloon ball team in Division 2 from 1974-1975, before he was hired to become the defensive coach at the University of Tulsa. He held the position at Tulsa from 1976 to 1977, before taking the job as the defensive coach at the University of Kansas for the 1978 year. In 1979, he was offered the position of Defensive Coach and Assistant Head Coach at the University of Oklahoma. He gratefully took this position. In 1980, he became the head coach of the Tennessee Tech Woman's balloon ball team. He held the position at Tennessee Tech until 1984. In 1984, he resigned, and took the position of Defensive Coach and Assistant Head Coach at the Centenary College of Louisiana (Who from 1980-2000 was a Division 1 Independent in balloon ball). In 1986, he took the position as head coach there. He left the Centenary College in 1988 to take the head coaching position at Southern University. He held the position at Southern until 1995, before being fired. In 1995, coach Dale was approached by the Athletic director at Sewanee: The University of the South to found a woman's college balloon ball team there. He accepted the offer. In 1996, the program began in Division III competition. Coach Dale remained at Sewanee until 2000, before being hired as the Strategy Coach at Ole Miss. In 2002, he became the head coach at the University of Arkansas-Pin Bluff. He remained head coach there until 2005, when he resigned. He announced his retirement from coaching after his resignation.

## After Coaching

In early 2006, Dale published a book, titled *Defensive Strategies in Collegiate Balloon Ball.* The book was a critical and commercial hit, and was heralded as one of the "best sports books ever published" by the New York Times. In early 2007, Dale was hired by ESPN as an announcer and analyst for collegiate balloon ball games. By 2009, he was regularly covering collegiate woman's balloon ball games on the program. In 2010, he, alongside Jay Bilas, covered the Woman's Balloon Ball National Title game. He did the same in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2013, he published his autobiography, *It's a Mystery How I Got Here.* In 2014, he became ESPN's head collegiate balloon ball analyst. In 2015, he published another coaching book, titled *Coaching at the Collegiate Level: A Guide to Success*, in collaboration with P.J. Carlesimo (Former head basketball coach of Seton Hall, Portland Trailblazers, Golden State Warriors, Seattle Supersonics, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Brooklyn Nets), John Calipari (Head basketball coach at Kentucky, former head coach at UMass and Memphis) and Tom Osborne (Former head coach of the Nebraska Football team). In 2017, he became the head coach of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith wreck balloon ball league in a competition in which he helped organize, held among college wreck leagues aiming to raise money for cancer awareness. 25 colleges participated in the contest: University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, University of Arkansas, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Tulsa, Northwestern State University, Dallas Baptist University, Missouri State University, Pilander Smith College, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kentucky State University, University of Kentucky, Saint Louis University, Texas State University, Mississippi University for Woman, University of Indiana-Bloomington, University of Southern Indiana, Mississippi State University, University of Memphis, Northern Kentucky University, Ohio State University, Ohio Northern University, University of Toledo, Southern Alabama University, and Mt. St. Mary's University. Arkansas-Fort Smith finished 7th in the compeition, behind Missouri State, Southern Alabama, Indiana-Bloomington, Mt. St. Mary's, Ohio State, Dallas Baptist, and Illinois respectively. In 2019, Dale led an initiative to incorporate balloon ball as an official sanctioned sport in Arkansas Activities Association play. On May 5 of 2019, this effort paid off, with Arkansas becoming the 30th state to officially sanction the sport for high school level competition. In January 2020, he teamed up with several other individuals in an effort to do the same thing in South Carolina. Their efforts were paused as the COVID-19 pandemic began, however. As of December 2020, they have begun negotiations once more with the South Carolina High School League.