| Fessler Year-by-Year |
| | Overall | NSIC |
| Year | School | W | L | Pct. | W | L | Pct. |
| 1996-97 | Anoka-Ramsey CC* | 25 | 4 | .862 | | | |
| 1997-98 | Anoka-Ramsey CC* | 27 | 2 | .931 | | | |
| 1998-99 | Anoka-Ramsey CC* | 23 | 6 | .793 | | | |
| 1999-00 | Anoka-Ramsey CC# | 26 | 6 | .813 | | | |
| 2000-01 | Concordia-St. Paul | 12 | 15 | .444 | 8 | 10 | .444 |
| 2001-02 | Concordia-St. Paul | 22 | 7 | .759 | 13 | 5 | .722 |
| 2002-03 | Concordia-St. Paul% | 21 | 8 | .724 | 14 | 4 | .778 |
| 2003-04 | Concordia-St. Paul$% | 28 | 4 | .875 | 15 | 1 | .938 |
| 2004-05 | Concordia-St. Paul^% | 25 | 8 | .758 | 10 | 4 | .714 |
| 2005-06 | Concordia-St. Paul% | 20 | 11 | .645 | 9 | 5 | .643 |
| 2006-07 | Concordia-St. Paul%^$ | 22 | 10 | .688 | 15 | 3 | .833 |
| 2007-08 | Concordia-St. Paul%^$ | 28 | 3 | .903 | 16 | 2 | .889 |
| 2008-09 | Concordia-St. Paul | 21 | 12 | .636 | 11 | 9 | .550 |
| 2009-10 | Concordia-St. Paul%$ | 26 | 6 | .813 | 17 | 3 | .850 |
| 2010-11 | Concordia-St. Paul% | 19 | 11 | .633 | 16 | 6 | .727 |
| 2011-12 | Concordia-St. Paul | 11 | 17 | .393 | 8 | 14 | .364 |
| 2012-13 | Concordia-St. Paul$% | 23 | 7 | .767 | 19 | 3 | .864 |
| 2013-14 | Concordia-St. Paul^%& | 28 | 9 | .757 | 16 | 6 | .727 |
| 2014-15 | Concordia-St. Paul | 15 | 14 | .517 | 11 | 11 | .500 |
| 2015-16 | Concordia-St. Paul | 5 | 6 | .455 | 1 | 4 | .200 |
| Concordia Totals (15 yrs) | 326 | 148 | .688 | 199 | 90 | .689 |
| Career Totals (18 yrs) | 427 | 166 | .720 | | | |
* - NJCAA III National Champions | # - NJCAA III National Runner-Up
& - NCAA Elite Eight appearance | % - NCAA Tournament appearance $ - NSIC Regular Season Champions ^ - NSIC Tournament Champions |
- at Concordia: 16th year | 326-148 overall | 199-90 NSIC
- Head Coaching Career: 20th year | 427-166 overall
- 3-Time NSIC Coach of the Year
- 10 NCAA Tournament appearances
- 5 NSIC Regular Season Championships
- 4 NSIC Tournament Championships
- 3 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen runs
- 2013-14 NCAA Central Region Champions & Elite Eight appearance
Paul Fessler stepped down in his 16th year as Golden Bear head coach in 2015-16 having established a winning basketball program at Concordia.
Most recently, he led the team to the program's first NCAA Division II Elite Eight by capturing the program's first NCAA Central Region Tournament Championship in the 2013-14 season.
The run was impressive, as it took an NSIC Sanford Health Tournament Championship to secure the bid to the regional tournament. During Concordia's postseason run, the Golden Bears consecutively defeated the #19, #2, #8 and #7 ranked teams in the nation by an average margin of 14.3 points.
Along the way, Fessler also topped 300 career wins at Concordia and eclipsed 400 overall career victories.
Under Fessler's guidance, the program captured five NSIC regular season championships, four NSIC tournament titles, and one NCAA regional championship and three NCAA Sweet Sixteen runs among 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.
The three-time NSIC Coach of the Year was the eighth coach in the history of Concordia women's basketball and left as the program's all-time wins leader with an overall record of 326-148 at the University.
In league play, Fessler guided the Golden Bears to a 199-90 record in the Northern Sun.
He was inducted into the Minnesota Girls Basketball Hall of Fame in the spring of 2012.
Concordia a Division II PowerOn a national scale, the Golden Bears had been ranked in the WBCA Top-25 Coaches Poll in many of Fessler's seasons as head coach, reaching the program's highest-ever national ranking at #2 in the country during their 28-3 season in 2007-08.
Entering the 2015-16 season, Fessler was the 15th winningest active coach with a .693 career winning percentage (321-142). That percentage also ranked 31st all-time in Division II women's basketball history at the time. His 321 total wins also ranked 32nd in Division II women's basketball among active coaches entering his final campaign at Concordia.
Long Term SuccessHe led the program to 20-plus win seasons in nine straight years (2001-10) including a string of 11 out of the 14. He led the team to the NCAA Tournament in 10 of 13 years which included guiding the team to the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament in any sport in their first year of eligibility in 2002-03, Concordia's fourth at the Division II level.
Fessler's 2006-07 and 2007-08 squads also became the first women's basketball team in Northern Sun history to repeat with conference regular season and conference tournament championships. Prior to that, no team had ever repeated with both crowns. They also captured NSIC Championships in 2003-04 (regular season), 2004-05 (tournament), 2009-10 (regular season), 2012-13 (regular season) and 2013-14 (tournament). The latest NSIC regular season title in 2012-13 came with the program's first NSIC South Division title in the first year of division play in the 16-team NSIC.
Longest Winning StreaksHe also guided three of his teams from rough starts (3-4 in 2012-13, 3-8 in 2010-11, 2-7 in 2006-07) to NCAA Tournament appearances. Most recently, the 2012-13 team rebounded from the slow start by winning 20 of 21 games including a 15-game winning streak. The 2010-11 team finished 19-11 overall and had won 16-of-17 with a 13-game winning streak; while the 2006-07 team put together a 15-of-16 stretch including a 10-game winning streak.
The 2003-04 squad rattled off 16-straight wins after dropping their first game of the year, and after a midseason loss to snap the streak, they rattled off 11-straight again for a 27-of-28 winning stretch of play. The strong run vaulted the team as high as #6 in the country in the top-25 and earned the right to host the NCAA North Central Region Tournament. They would finish the season 28-4 and captured their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory before falling to the defending national champions in the second round.
But the program's longest winning streak came in the 28-3 campaign of 2007-08 when they opened the year 18-0, adding another 7-game winning streak for a 25-1 mark prior to the end of the regular season. Despite dropping their regular season finale, the Golden Bears rallied for three more wins to capture the NSIC Tournament title that year.
Early Years at ConcordiaFessler was named interim head coach of the Golden Bears on August 15, 2000, inheriting a program that had struggled to post double-digit wins in a season for nearly a decade. In his interim season, Fessler led the team to a 12-win season (12-15) as Concordia was a surprise of the Northern Sun in just their second year in the conference and provisional member transitioning to NCAA Division II.
After the turn-around first year, the interim tag was lifted and the program took-off under his guidance. In 2001-02, the team set a program record with a 22-win season (22-7) and ascended to second in the Northern Sun with a 13-5 league record, setting the stage for their first NCAA Tournament appearance the following season in 2002-03 - their first year of eligibilty for the "big dance" in the program's fourth year of Division II membership.
The 2002-03 team's 21-8 record provided the women's basketball with their first back-to-back 20-win seasons since the 1984-85 and 1985-86 Comets.
Prior to Concordia - ARCC DynastyBefore stepping on the Gangelhoff Center sidelines, Fessler began his college basketball coaching career at the junior college level with Anoka Ramsey Community College in 1996. During his tenure at ARCC, Fessler turned the Golden Rams into a national power. In four seasons as head coach, Fessler turned out an astonishing record of 101-18 (.849).
His ARCC teams claimed three-straight NJCAA Division III National Championships and were national runner-up in the 1999-2000 season.
The Golden Rams under Fessler held the #1 national ranking from November, 1997 through January, 1999.
The 1998 championship team averaged 88 points per game, breaking the national scoring record.
Fessler coached six All-Americans at ARCC and is a member of the MCCC Hall of Fame.
First Coaching ExperiencesFessler's coaching career began with stints at the middle school and high school levels in his home state of Iowa in Cedar Falls, as well as Fort Worth, Texas.
But his first head coaching job was in Minnesota at St. Anthony Village High School in 1993. There, he inherited a program that had 8-straight losing seasons. But in his three seasons at St. Anthony, Fessler's squads posted a 45-27 overall record.
Fessler also has experience at the AAU level. In the summer of 1999, he guided the North Tartan AAU All-Star team to a Gold Medal at the Junior Olympics in Cleveland, Ohio.
College BackgroundHe earned his bachelor's degree in 1988 from Northern Iowa and a master's in organizational management from Concordia University in 2005.
PersonalFessler is a 1983 graduate of Sutherland High School in Sutherland, Iowa. He was a three-sport prep athlete, lettering in football, basketball and baseball.
He resides in White Bear Lake, Minn. with his wife, Shelly. Their daughter, Jade is a Division II women's golfer at Concordia-Portland.
