Calvin University

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Bill Sall heads into his sixth season as Calvin men's basketball coach. He is the 12th head coach in the history of a program. In five prior years as head coach, he has compiled a won-loss record of 113-41. 

Calvin started the 2024-25 campaign with a 1-6 record, but won its next 20 games on the way to a 21-7 season that included a perfect 14-0 MIAA record and the first MIAA Tournament Championship under Sall's tenure. The Knights took home their third consecutive MIAA regular season championship and went unbeaten in MIAA play for the first time since the 1999-00 season. The run also included Sall's 100th career win, which came on January 15 against Adrian College. The Knights earned their third bid to the NCAA Tournament in four seasons before falling to Wisconsin Lutheran College in the opening round. Following the season, Sall was named the MIAA Men's Basketball Coach of the Year.  

In 2024, he led Calvin to a share of the MIAA regular season title and guided the Knights to the NCAA III Tournament for the second time in three years. Calvin advanced all the way to the Elite 8 of the 2024 NCAA III Tournament and finished 25-5 overall. In tournament play, Calvin knocked off #17 Elmhurst, #2 John Carroll and #4 Randolph Macon. In 2023, he led Calvin to its first MIAA regular season title since 2015 and to its second straight 20-win campaign as the Knights finished 22-5 overall and 13-1 in the MIAA. In 2022, he led Calvin to a 22-9 overall record, marking the program's first 20-win season since 2015. He also guided the program to its first trip to the NCAA III Tournament in five years with the Knights advancing to the Sweet 16 round of the tournament - its highest national finish since 2014.

During his time at Calvin, he has coached three MIAA MVP's and three All-Americans with Derrick DeVries earning both awards in 2020 and Jalen Overway achieving the same accolades in 2023 and 2024. Uchenna Egekeze joined Overway as a D3hoops.com All-American in 2024, and followed that by winning MIAA MVP and All-America honors in 2025. His Calvin teams have also achieved in the classroom as they have earned the MIAA Team GPA Award three times for producing team cumulative GPA's of 3.30 or above.

Sall came to Calvin in May of 2019 after six years as the head men's basketball coach at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. His return to west Michigan was a homecoming for the Jenison native. Sall is a graduate of both Hudsonville Unity Christian High School and Calvin University (where he was a two-time Division III All-American and a two-time MIAA MVP on the men's basketball team).

In 2019, Sall led the Northern Michigan men's basketball team to a 17-12 record and a berth in the GLIAC Tournament semifinals. His team was regionally ranked heading into the final week of the NCAA Division II regular season. At Northern he took over a program that had experienced six consecutive losing seasons and rebuilt the Wildcats into a winning program. In 2017-18, he led Northern to a 15-13 record and a third-place finish in the GLIAC North Division before fashioning a 17-12 mark and a second-consecutive third-place finish in the GLIAC North Division this season.

Prior to his tenure at Northern Michigan, he served as head coach of the Ferris State men's basketball program for 11 years, and combined, he has 30 years of collegiate men's basketball coaching experience, having also served as an assistant men's coach at Calvin, Ferris State and Hillsdale College.

At Ferris State, Sall led the Bulldogs to four Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference North Division titles (2003-04, 2004-5, 2010-11, 2011-12) and a trio of NCAA Division II Tournament trips (2004-05, 2005-06, 2010-11), reaching a pair of regional championship games. His overall record at Ferris State was 176-153.

Sall served four seasons (1998-2002) as an assistant coach under Ed Douma at Hillsdale College before being appointed head coach at Ferris State. The Chargers were 72-41 (.637) during his time in Hillsdale, reaching two consecutive (2001-02) NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional tournaments and winning one GLIAC South title.

Sall was the top assistant at Ferris State for three seasons (1995-98). During the 1997-98 season, he helped guide the Bulldogs to a 21-12 finish, a GLIAC tournament title, and a NCAA Division II National Tournament berth. He was interim head coach for a portion of the 1995-96 season.

Sall's coaching career  at Calvin began with Douma from 1992-95. The Knights made two NCAA Division III National Tournament appearances, claimed the 1993-94 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship, and were 37-17 (.685) during his two seasons as an assistant coach.

Sall was a standout player at Calvin from 1985-90. A two-time (1989-90) MIAA co-Most Valuable Player, he currently ranks third on the Knights’ scoring list with 2,063 points, which includes a 70-game double-figure scoring streak. He was a two-time (1989-90) second-team National Association of Basketball Coaches Division III All-American. He graduated from Calvin with a bachelor's degree in recreation management.

Sall and his wife, Karen, have four children: Delaney, Lydia, Hannah, and Quinton. His wife Karen is a native of Hudsonville and, like her husband, also a graduate of Hudsonville Unity Christian High School and Calvin University.