University of Calgary Athletics

Dan Vanhooren joined the Dinos in May 2000 and is the seventh men’s basketball head coach at the University of Calgary.

Since he took over the program, Vanhooren’s Dinos have made a steady climb into elite status in U SPORTS basketball. In just four years, he took a program that had not enjoyed a winning season in nearly a decade all the way to the conference title and within two points of the national final in 2004. It was Calgary’s first Canada West championship since 1993, and their first-round victory at the Final 8 in Halifax was the Dinos’ first national quarterfinal win in 38 years. The two-point semifinal loss came at the hands of the Carleton Ravens, who went on to win the CIS (now U SPORTS) title.

In 2008, he coached the Dinos to their best conference record since 1976 (18-4) and played host to the Canada West Final Four in front of a sold-out Jack Simpson Gym. Eight years later in 2016, the Dinos won their sixth Canada West Championship and went on to compete in the national finals for the first time since 1966 against the Carleton Ravens. The Dinos finished with a silver medal. It was the first of five consecutive trips to the national tournament for the Dinos, who captured three conference titles in four years (2016, 2018, 2019) and reached the program's pinnacle with the 2018 national championship - a 79-77 win over Ryerson in Halifax.

The following season, the Dinos posted the first undefeated season in program history at 20-0, winning an eighth Canada West title before falling in the national final. Vanhooren earned his second Canada West coach of the year honour in 2018-19 and became the first Dinos coach to win the Stewart W. Aberdeen Trophy as U SPORTS coach of the year the same season. He has been named the Canada West Coach of the Year twice (2015 & 2019) and the Calgary Dinos athletic department coach of the year three times (2016, 2019, 2025).

Vanhooren moved to Calgary following a four-year stint as head coach of Medicine Hat College. In 2000 he coached the Rattlers to a bronze medal finish and was named the ACAC south coach of the year.

He played varsity basketball at the University of Alberta under the legendary Don Horwood. After three seasons with the Golden Bears, Vanhooren graduated with a Bachelor of Physical Education in 1993 and moved to graduate studies at the University of British Columbia. While attending UBC he worked for the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies in their inaugural season, and he received his Master’s of Human Kinetics in 1996.

Vanhooren is a certified NCCP Level III coach.

Dan and his wife Kara reside in northwest Calgary with their three children: Peyton, Wyatt, and Nash. 

SEASONS AS HEAD COACH: 26th (2025-26)
CANADA WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS: 6 (2004, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2025)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCES: 9 (2004, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2025)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1 (2018)