California University of Pennsylvania

A former player and assistant within the region, Steve Bridgeman enters his seventh season as an assistant coach at California (PA) and was elevated to associate head coach in the summer of 2022.

Bridgeman has helped the Vulcans post a combined 86-40 record over the last four seasons. In 2022, Cal made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in nearly 15 years and advanced to the NCAA Atlantic Region Championship. The Vulcans returned to the NCAA Tournament last season and tied for the second-winningest campaign in school history by earning 28 victories.

He previously spent two seasons as the graduate assistant coach at Wheeling following a one-year stint as the assistant coach at Goshen (Ind.), an NAIA program. He spent one season of his playing career at Ohio Dominican before transferring to Wheeling for his final three years and played under then-head coach Danny Sancomb.

Bridgeman helped Wheeling capture its first-ever Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championship in 2018, which marked the first league title for the program since 2005. The Cardinals entered the league tournament as the second seed before winning all three tournament contests by at least 14 points, highlighted by an 80-65 win over Charleston (W.Va.) in the championship game. Wheeling then made a third-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament before finishing the year with a 26-6 overall record. In 2017, he aided the Cardinals in their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship before losing to eventual-national runner-up Fairmont State in the regional final.

With the Cardinals, Bridgeman helped mentor six All-MEC selections over his two seasons as a graduate assistant. He worked directly with the post players and was instrumental in the development of forward Haywood Highsmith, who was named Ron Lenz National Player of the Year after leading the country with 29 double-doubles behind 22.0 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. Bridgeman also worked with forward Pat Moseh, who was a two-time All-MEC First-Team honoree after tallying over 1,700 points during his career.

At Goshen, Bridgeman assisted in leading a program to its first winning season since 2012 with a 19-13 overall record. The Maples Leafs posted 10 conference victories in the Crossroads League for the first time since 1975. Forward Dominque Bolden was selected an NAIA All-American after posting 15.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting over 47 percent from behind the arc. He also mentored all-conference forward Trevor Commissaris, a 6-foot-7 Michigan native, who went on to play professionally in Italy.

A native of Ohio, Bridgeman played at Ohio Dominican during the 2011-12 season before transferring to Wheeling for his final three seasons. He played in 50 career games between the Panthers and Cardinals.

Bridgeman earned his bachelor's degree in history from Wheeling and later completed his master's degree in educational leadership in 2018.