Dave Nielsen enters his 26th season as the head track and field coach at Idaho State University with a program that continues to grow stronger each year. While Nielsen is well known for having coached Olympic Champion and World Record Holder Stacy Dragila, she is far from the only standout that has come through the ISU program over the last 25 years. Nielsen has helped 20 athletes to All-American status during his tenure at ISU, including 11 in the last four years. Forty-seven athletes have advanced to the NCAA Championships, 174 have won Big Sky titles and 413 have earned All-Big Sky Conference recognition.

In 2008, Nielsen helped Cassie Merkley have a breakout season, guiding the junior to Big Sky Conference Indoor Championship gold medals in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump and pentathlon as well an outdoor gold in the heptathlon, the latter of which qualified her for the NCAA National Outdoor Championships. The women's squad took third at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships and tied for fourth in the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. The men took fourth place during the indoor season.

During the 2007 season, Nielsen led the women's track and field team to an outdoor Big Sky Conference victory, which was the first in Bengal History. He received both the Big Sky Conference and Mountain Region Coach of the Year Award in 2007 for his efforts. Nielsen's coaching helped the Bengals claim titles in two events, including the 800-meter dash and 400-Meter Relay. Nielsen also helped the Bengal women's track and field team capture second place in the women's Big Sky Conference indoor championships.

Nielsen led the men's track and field team to two consecutive indoor Big Sky Conference victories in 2005 and 2006. In 2006, Nielsen helped the Bengals claim titles in four events, including the Pole Vault, High Jump, Shot Put, and Distance Medley relays. He received the Big Sky Conference Coach of the year award in 2005 and 2006. Nielsen was also honored as the Big Sky Conference and Mountain Region Coach of the Year Award for the Indoor Men's Track and Field in 1997 and 1998.

In 2005, Nielsen led the men's track and field team to an indoor Big Sky Conference victory, which was the first since 1998 and fourth Big Sky Indoor Championship title for the Bengals ever. Nielsen's coaching helped the Bengals claim titles in five events, including the 55-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, and the 1600-meter and Distance Medley relays.

Amber Welty became the Bengals' first-ever NCAA Champion when she won the NCAA Outdoor High Jump title with a leap of 6 feet, 3.5 inches. Welty was also the Bengals' first-ever four-time NCAA All-American, finishing first, second, third and fourth in four appearances. Later, as an assistant coach for the Bengals and still coached by Nielsen, Welty became Idaho State University's first female track and field Olympian earning a spot on the 1992 USA Olympic Team competing in Barcelona, Spain.

He was named the 2000 USA Track & Field Nike Elite Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) National Coach of the Year.

Nielsen is as concerned about his student-athletes' performance in the classroom as on the track. During his tenure at ISU 916 student-athletes have been named Academic All-Big Sky. He has had 11 Academic All-American selections. In addition, 17 of his athletes have earned Big Sky Scholar Athlete recognition, more than any other sport at ISU during that time period.

Nielsen is a nationally recognized expert in the track and field jumping disciplines. He has been published in the journals Track Coach, Coaches Review, Pole Vault Standard, IAAF New Studies in Athletics, was the primary source for an article by the American Institute of Physics. He was featured in the August 2002 issue of Track and Field Coaches Review. In other professional activities, Nielsen has served as USA Track and Field women's development chair (pole vault), and as a member of the NCAA Track and Field Committee and USTFCCCA Division I Executive Committee.

Once one of the top pole-vaulters in the nation, Nielsen was a Big Ten champion and earned All-American honors and competed at the 1976 Olympic Trials. Nielsen served as both student assistant and graduate assistant at Iowa. He moved to Pocatello in 1980 to train for an Olympic berth while completing graduate studies. After serving as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin (1982-83 season), he returned to ISU as the women's track coach before being named to head the combined program in 1985.

Nielsen was also the originator of the indoor and outdoor track and field power rankings system that was last used in 2005; (www.team-power.org) developed in the spring of 1994 which track pollsters can use as a basis to gauge a team's dual meet strength. The system has an exponentially based sliding scale, with 10 points given for world-class performance, seven points for NCAA qualifying mark, etc. The system is based on scoring similar to that in a decathlon. Two athletes from each team in each event are entered on a score sheet in the same fashion as a dual meet entry. The marks are then scored on a decathlon-style table. Points from each event are then totaled, equaling the final score for a team. Total scores are then ranked and a top 25 is determined.

Nielsen is the originator of the somersault long jump. Nielsen and Tom Ecker published a biomechanical study on the technique of the somersault and Nielsen used the technique in long jump competitions.

Nielsen received his Bachelor Degree (BGS) from the University of Iowa (1978) and Masters Degree in Physical Education and Administration from Idaho State (1981). Dave and his wife Michelle married in winter 2009, and Dave has three sons: Hans (24), Thor (22), and Sven (18).