A former player and graduate assistant coach within the region, Steve Bridgeman enters his first season as assistant coach at Cal U in 2018-19.
Bridgeman spent the last two seasons as the graduate assistant coach at Wheeling Jesuit 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 Jesuit for his final three years and played under then-head coach Danny Sancomb.
Bridgeman helped Wheeling Jesuit capture its first-ever Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championship last year, 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 Jesuit 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.
Over the last two seasons, Bridgeman helped mentor six All-MEC selections while a graduate assistant with the Cardinals. 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 with Polisportiva Alfa Cantania in Italy.
A native of Ohio, Bridgeman played at Ohio Dominican during the 2011-12 season before transferring to Wheeling Jesuit 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 Jesuit and later completed his master's degree in educational leadership in 2018.
