Bio

Tim Sandquist enters his seventh season as head coach of the Kirkwood Community College Men’s Basketball Team in 2025-2026.

This past season saw one of the most successful seasons in Kirkwood Men's Basketball History. Kirkwood received the automatic bid to the NJCAA DII National Championship in Danville from winning the Region 11 Tournament after knocking off Iowa Central Tritons in the final. The Eagles followed that up by claiming the 2025 NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship. The Eagles were the No. 3 seed in the tournament and knocked off (4) Parkland in the final game, 55-54, to win the fourth national title in program history. The Eagles finished the season with a 33-3 overall record. 2025 was the Eagles' first appearance since 2019 when Kirkwood also took home the title. Kirkwood has made the second-most Division II Men's Basketball Championship appearances in the nation (14), and is the winningest team in Division Il national tournament history (39-12).

Coach Sandquist was named the North Central District Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season. He was also named Coach of the Tournament at the NJCAA DII National Championship. 

Through his first six years as Head Coach of the Men’s Basketball team at Kirkwood, Coach Sandquist has earned ICCAC Coach of the Year once and has seen 24 players earn NJCAA Region XI All-Region Honors, seven players earn NJCAA Region XI All-Tournament Honors, one player earn NJCAA Region XI Player of the Year, and four players earn NJCAA All-American Honors. 

In his first year, the Eagles posted a 24-6 record while guiding the Eagles to a Regular Season ICCAC Conference Championship. The Eagles had an outstanding group of sophomores with four players named to the NJCAA Region XI All-Region team, ICCAC Conference Player of the Year, and one NJCAA All-American.

Sandquist came to Cedar Rapids via Rockford, Illinois where he was the head coach at perennial power Rock Valley College for the 2018-2019 year. The Golden Eagles finished the season with a 25-7 record, NJCAA Region IV Championship, NJCAA District 2 Championship, and finished the year as the NJCAA National Tournament Runner-Up

Sandquist coached two 1^st Team All-Region players, one 2^nd Team All-Region player and also had the Region IV Player of the Year. In addition, Coach Sandquist also had two All-N4C players, one first-teamer and one second-teamer. For his efforts, Tim Sandquist was named NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year, NJCAA District 2 Coach of the year, and was awarded the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year award.

From 2016-2018 Sandquist was a member of NJCAA D1 independent Northwest Kansas Technical College in Goodland, Kansas. He spent both seasons as the top assistant for the Mavericks and was part of a staff that saw the Mavs reach program victory #100 in just six seasons. 

Before his time at NWKTC, Sandquist spent four seasons as an assistant at Dodge City Community College. While there, he was involved in every aspect of the program's success. During his four years on the bench and was Region VI runner-up in 2015. 

Coach Sandquist got his junior college start at Southwestern Community College (Iowa) in 2011. 

An Omaha native, Sandquist started his coaching career at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He spent five seasons on the bench during one of the most successful runs in program history. During his time with Omaha, the Mavericks won the 2008 NCC Tournament and the 2010 MIAA Tournament. In both of those years, the Mavericks were participants in the NCAA Division II national tournament.

Coach Sandquist graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a bachelor's degree in History and a master's degree in Recreational Administration.