SEWARD, Neb. – Following a GPAC championship season in 2023, Ben Boldt has been honored by the Omaha World-Herald. The news outlet announced Boldt as its 2023-24 Midlands College Female Coach of the Year on Sunday (July 21). He was chosen from the pool of Nebraska small college women’s head coaches. The 2023 Bulldogs shared the GPAC regular season title and finished the campaign at 25-4 overall.
The World-Herald article regarding the award announcement detailed the journey of Ben and Angie Boldt as they returned to their home state of Nebraska in December of 2017. The ’23 season marked the sixth year for the Boldts leading the Concordia Volleyball program.
As Ben Boldt told the World-Herald, “(The GPAC title) is an annual goal that we have. We lean a lot into our core values and how we approach every day. The journey was awesome. It’s a grind, the GPAC conference. We call it the Big Ten of the NAIA, so it’s definitely an accomplishment.”
The ’23 Bulldogs rose as high as No. 1 in the NAIA coaches’ poll as part of the conference championship season (first GPAC title since 2000 for the program). Concordia was led by three All-Americans in Bree Burtwistle (first team), Camryn Opfer (second team) and Gabi Nordaker (third team). They helped the Bulldogs break a program record for highest winning percentage (.862) in school history and earn another trip to the final site of the NAIA National Championship tournament.
Over six seasons at Concordia, the Boldts have guided the program to a combined record of 127-47 (63-32 GPAC). The Bulldogs have made five-straight national tournament appearances with two of those trips resulting in advancements to the national quarterfinals. Concordia has also reached the GPAC tournament final in three consecutive campaigns.
Added Ben Boldt, “I think that Angie and I have gone through our careers and we’ve built a foundation of everyone we’ve learned from. It’s been an awesome journey for us.”