DeKALB — Adam Tandez, women’s basketball assistant coach, was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Thirty Under-30 Wednesday for the nation’s best coaches under 30 years old.

This is Tandez’s second consecutive year receiving the honor ,as he won it at Truman State University last season in the award’s inaugural season.

Each honoree exemplified involvement in community service, mentorship and impact on others, professional manner and attitude and professional association involvement, according to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association website.

Tandez, who was added to the NIU coaching staff in May, worked with the Huskies post players and said the most important thing he needed to understand when he arrived was that the players were very talented and highly-recruited, and they weren’t at the Division I level by accident.

Head Coach Lisa Carlsen said Tandez’s holistic approach to coaching covers all of those areas.

“[Tandez helps student-athletes] understand that women’s basketball and being a student-athlete is almost like the driving force behind what that means for you in the big world, getting a job, being a good member of the community and a citizen to your community,” Carlsen said. “I think probably all of those things are because of his holistic approach to our student-athletes and mentoring them to become outstanding citizens [and] not just great basketball players.”

Tandez started coaching college basketball six years ago at NAIA school Ashford in Clinton, Iowa and said an important thing with many professional organizations like the coaches association is trying to maintain an active role in any way that he can.

Tandez is a member of the coaches association Coach-to-Coach Mentoring Program, where he said he has three mentors from different colleges across the country and has one Division I mentee and two Division II mentees.

He has served at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Convention, which is held in conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Final Four and where coaches can connect with colleagues, celebrate the end of the season and start preparing for the next season, according to the association’s website.

Tandez started his passion project, the All Day Every Day Hoops Newsletter, a weekly email newsletter that contains content ranging from basketball-heavy material to motivational and inspiring stories, in April 2015.

Tandez said the newsletter allows him to have a platform where he’s able to interact with many coaches and they can share stories on how to help each other as leaders, how they can positively show their passion and how they can grow in anything they’re doing from academics to athletics.

“Being able to use basketball in that same capacity is probably the most passionate thing for me,” Tandez said. “[It’s] why I truly enjoy getting up every day and coaching [and] being around our student-athletes and helping in any way I can.”

Cassidy Glenn, former women’s basketball player that played for Tandez this season, said although McCleary was her primary assistant coach, Tandez would still invite her to his individual practices and always made sure to include her.

Glenn said Tandez was never afraid to correct her if she was doing something wrong on the court and knew how to talk to players in different ways.

“I think the way you talk to a player has a lot to do with how they respond to it,” Glenn said. “He’d just make me laugh because I’m someone who, when I would get upset, I would really get upset. He would try to just say something that would make me laugh and make me forget about why I was upset.”

Glenn’s also been considering playing overseas, something that hadn’t crossed her mind before speaking with Tandez.

Tandez said the players, from former senior forward Amber Gray to sophomore forward Ally May and freshman forward Abby Woollacott, have made his transition great, and they’ve been able to incorporate the lessons and teachings he’s given into a base of knowledge they already had.

“I think that’s what contributed to [Glenn’s] year and Kelly’s steady season and [sophomore forward Renee Sladek’s] strong play at the end,” Tandez said. “That’s as much to do with them and their openness to learn from me as it is with my contributions to them.”