Daytona State adds Tyson Kelderman, boosts staff for 2026-27 push

Daytona State added Tyson Kelderman, Albert Settles and James Frazier to its men’s basketball staff on June 22, a three-man move that gives Reed Ridder a deeper support system as he pushes into his first offseason in charge. Kelderman is the headliner, bringing junior-college postseason experience from Northwest Florida State College and a résumé that reaches Division I and the NBA draft pipeline.

Kelderman spent three seasons as an assistant at Northwest Florida State, where the Raiders went 27-8 in 2025-26, won their 17th Panhandle Conference championship, made their 15th NJCAA tournament appearance and reached their 10th Elite Eight. Before that, he was a graduate assistant at Cleveland State and then at Missouri under Dennis Gates, where the Tigers reached the 2023 NCAA Tournament and he worked with Kobe Brown. Daytona State also listed degrees in finance from Iowa State in 2021 and positive coaching and athletic leadership from Missouri in 2023. For a Daytona State program trying to sharpen its recruiting and player development, Kelderman brings a track record from one of the most successful junior-college programs in the country.

Settles gives Ridder a different lane. Daytona State said he has coached at the high school, grassroots and collegiate levels, and spent the past two seasons as head varsity boys coach and program director at Central Florida Christian Academy in Orlando. CFCA went 46-15 under Settles, reached the 2025 FHSAA Class 1A Regional Finals and returned to the Final Four in 2026 for the first time since 2019. Daytona State said he earned consecutive FACA Coach of the Year honors and helped Austin Rivers Southeast Elite win the 2024 Adidas 3SSB National Championship, the first national title in program history. That background points to a recruiter who knows Florida’s prep and grassroots lanes as well as the culture work that comes with building a roster from the ground up.

Frazier arrives after one season at Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, where he served as assistant varsity coach and head JV coach. Northside Christian won its region championship for the first time in school history and reached the 2A State Final Four, while Frazier also helped multiple players move on to college basketball. In a staffing build like Daytona State’s, that matters as much as a trophy case: the program needs people who can identify players, keep them on track and help them keep playing.

Ridder, hired May 1 after stops at Mercer and UT Martin, has been handed a staff that covers multiple phases of the job at once. Daytona State said he will oversee recruiting, player development, game strategy and academic success, and these hires suggest the Falcons are building for all four. Mercer went 19-13 in Ridder’s second season and finished second in the Southern Conference, while UT Martin went 40-25 over his two seasons there. Daytona State is not waiting for the 2026-27 season to define its identity; it is trying to set it now.