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Former Air Force great Nick Welch joins Dave Pilipovich’s coaching staff

Nick Welch

Scout

AP

Capt. Nick Welch played an important role in Air Force’s most successful run of basketball in the Mountain West, helping to lead the Falcons to a share of a regular season conference title in 2004 and winning Mountain West Co-Player of the Year honors. During Welch’s four seasons on the court for Air Force, the Falcons won 78 games and made appearances in both the NCAA tournament and the NIT.

On Friday it was announced that Welch will return to Colorado Springs, as he’s been assigned as an assistant to head coach Dave Pilipovich’s staff.

“We are thrilled that Nick is rejoining the Air Force basketball program,” said Pilipovich in the release announcing the move. “To have a player and officer of his caliber come back and work with our players will be a great benefit to our team as well as the athletic department.”

Since graduating from the Academy in 2007 Welch has worked on Air Force bases in Louisiana and California.

Welch joins the Falcon coaching staff after spending four years at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana as an aircraft maintenance officer and two at Los Angeles Air Force Base as an acquisition program manager for IIF GPS Satellites since his graduation from the Academy in 2007.

His resume doesn’t have the look that one would expect for a college basketball coach, but that isn’t a problem here.

Why? The service academy experience for a student-athlete isn’t similar to what a student athlete at a “conventional” college would have to navigate, and Welch’s past experiences as an athlete at the school will help current players (especially the freshmen) get acclimated to service academy life.

Will Welch’s return help Pilipovich return the Falcons to the status they enjoyed during the mid-2000s? That remains to be seen, with the Mountain West being a much stronger league now (adding Utah State gave the league another boost in competition) than it was when Welch was a player. But it certainly can’t hurt given his past experiences.

Raphielle can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.