NILES — Former Mishawaka High School associate boys basketball coach Tyler Dendy will replace Todd Pawielski at Niles it was announced Friday.

Pawielski announced his retirement prior to the 2017-18 season when he accepted a new position with Cassopolis Public Schools.

Dendy coached the Mishawaka Marian girls basketball team for one season, setting a new school record for wins when the team went 14-9 in 2017. That same team won this year’s sectional championship.

He was also an assistant boys basketball coach and JV boys basketball coach at Marian.

“It begins a new area for Niles basketball,” said Niles Athletic Director Jeff Upton. “Coach Pawielski led the program for the past 12 years and now we really look forward to Coach Dendy leading our program.”

Upton said that the mission that Dendy will be on is to improve the Vikings in both the SMAC conference and in the postseason.

“To me it is simple,” he said. “We must beat both Benton Harbor and Lakeshore to get out of our MHSAA district. Coach Dendy has his work cut out for him. We believe he will bring a renewed energy and install a system that will work with our student athletes so we can compete in the state tourney and in our strong SMAC basketball conference.”

Dendy understands there is a difference between Indiana and Michigan basketball, but he feels he is up to the challenge.

“I think Indiana is more of a finesse game,” he said. “Michigan is more of a physical, power game.”

Dendy said that looking at the makeup of the kids and the type of kids the community produces made the Niles job attractive.

“They have a good mix of athleticism and size,” he said. “I have heard great things about the community. The superintendent here is doing a great job in turning the school around and this is somewhere people are going to want to be.”

He also said that the community is invested in all of its sports programs.

His message to his team?

“We have to compete,” Dendy said. “We have to get better every day. We are always going to have goals to win a district and win a conference championship. I am not going to put a certain number of wins per year. I do not do that.”

At Marian, Dendy coached under Indiana basketball legend Rob Burger, who is closing in on 300 career victories and as an assistant football coach, he worked with hall of famer Reggie Glon.

At Mishawaka, Dendy was the associate boys basketball coach for hall of famer Ron Hecklinski, who coached Lebron James in the 2003 McDonalds All-American game.

“I have learned under a lot of great coaches and I have picked a couple of things here and there from each one of them.”