Caleb Currier, who hails from tiny Onida, South Dakota, has been exposed to some big-time college basketball programs.

A University of Tennessee graduate, Currier was a student manager and graduate assistant for the Volunteer women’s basketball team, a University of North Carolina ticket office operations assistant and is currently a Georgia Tech assistant women’s basketball coach. 

Currier, 27, has also traveled abroad to The Bahamas, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Mexico, Croatia and Spain for basketball-related trips, along with mission journeys to Africa. 

Sully Buttes grad Caleb Currier is an assistant women's basketball coach at Georgia Tech. (Danny Karnik / Georgia Tech Athletics)

“It’s been really surreal,” Currier said. “But it’s been really, really enjoyable. I am so grateful for all the people I have met, for all the different opportunities I have had and the places I have been.”

All while hailing from Onida, a town of 650 residents in central South Dakota filled with a proud sports tradition and a strong sense of community. 

“It all starts in Onida and it starts with the values that they have and have really instilled in me,” Currier said about his basketball path. “I had great teachers at Sully Buttes and I was always so excited when I am able to be back in Onida and see everybody.”

‘Tennessee was always the dream school’

Currier’s upbringing paved the way for his college basketball path. 

A 2015 Sully Buttes High School graduate, Currier grew up in a hoops-crazed basketball community. The Charger basketball teams have combined for six state basketball championships — four girls and two boys — since 2007. 

Currier wasn’t just exposed to basketball success, but he developed lasting relationships with key figures within the Charger hoops community. 

Currier’s babysitters were former Sully Buttes basketball stars Katelynn, Elizabeth and Kylee Lamb. He grew up in the same neighborhood as Lynn and Mark Senftner, who coached the Chargers to all four girls basketball state championships. 

“Mark left a mark on our community,” said Currier about Senftner, who died in 2022 after a bout with brain cancer. “When I think of him, I think of the word greatness and what he did for our community.”

Currier was also influenced by Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, a Rapid City Stevens High School graduate.

Currier’s college basketball dreams were greatly impacted by Tennessee Volunteer legend Candace Parker, who notoriously won the 2004 McDonald’s All-American Slam Dunk Contest. 

Parker, along with legendary coach Pat Summitt, sparked Currier’s interest in the orange and white. 

“Tennessee was always the dream school,” Currier said. “Candace dunking was in like ‘04. So I was eight. So from eight to 18, Tennessee was everything for me. I just remember watching Pat and the games on TV and just the greatness.”

Currier, who enrolled at Tennessee in fall 2015, experienced that greatness first hand on campus in Knoxville. 

“You walk by the national championship trophies every single day and that’s the standard,” Currier said. “The expectation was so high. The standard was so high, but that’s what you live for. It’s like you want those moments. You want that opportunity, and it’s really shaped my mindset as a coach.”

Currier served as a Tennessee student manager from 2016-19 and a graduate assistant coach from 2019-21. Currier’s duties climbing up the coaching ladder ranged from recruiting strategies, working camps and assisting with daily operations of the program. 

Currier worked under two different coaches at Tennessee — Holly Warlick and Kellie Harper. He worked for three years under Warlick as a student manager and landed a graduate assistant position under Harper.

“(Harper) asked the administration for a second GA spot,” Currier said. “So I decided to stay there. I was really fortunate for that opportunity. I got to be in a place I was really comfortable with, but got to know two different coaching staffs. That was huge for me.”

After graduate school, he landed a job at the University of North Carolina in fall 2021, serving as a ticket office operations assistant. At UNC, he oversaw gameday ticket operations for women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, women’s basketball and baseball. Additionally, Currier assisted with men’s basketball and Olympic sports, while providing daily customer service to donors, season ticket holders, fans and students.

Currier, however, realized selling tickets wasn’t for him and he contemplated his future endeavors. 

“It gave me a chance to kind of step back and realize what do you want in life?” Currier said. “What are you called to do? Maybe a break was a good thing. Because I think it reset me and it set a new fire under me to really be aggressive in it.”

‘Chase your dreams’ 

After eight months in Chapel Hill, Currier received a random call from Georgia Tech head women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner about a job opening.  

Currier had never met Fortner, however, he had some mutual coaching colleagues and it led to an opportunity to coach major Division I women’s basketball. Shortly after receiving Fortner’s call, Currier was in Atlanta for a quick interview process. 

“I actually came to campus three days later, and on the spot, she offered me the job and I accepted right then and there,” Currier said. “I have been here ever since and I love it.” 

Sully Buttes grad Caleb Currier, left, is an assistant women's basketball coach at Georgia Tech. (Danny Karnik / Georgia Tech Athletics)

Currier joined the Yellow Jackets as director of recruiting operations in May 2022. He was elevated to assistant coach/director of recruiting operations in 2023.

Currier was instrumental in Georgia Tech’s No. 19-ranked recruiting class for 2024, according to ESPN. For Currier, a self-proclaimed “big relationship person,” recruiting is his favorite part of the job. 

“I love the aspect of the recruiting piece and you have to be so competitive in recruiting,” Currier said. “I think the opportunity to compete and try to get Georgia Tech to where it needs to be is really fun for me.”

The Yellow Jackets are currently 14-11 overall and 5-8 in the ACC. They’ve already surpassed last season’s overall win total (13) and conference win total (four). 

Georgia Tech has five games left in the regular season, as it chases an ACC tournament championship and the ultimate goal of the NCAA tourney bid.

Much like the small-town kid chased his college basketball dreams. 

“If you have a dream — if you have a vision for yourself — it doesn’t matter if you come from a population of 650 go after it, and always treat people the right way along the way,” Currier said. “That’s the biggest thing for me is I want to make sure along this journey that I always treat people the right way and do things the right way. I always say chase your dreams because you never know what is going to happen and I hope I am a testament to that.”