Dakota Wizards minority owner and team president Dawn Kopseng has her work cut out for her.

On Monday Kopseng began the first round of interviews for the team's open head coaching position. Kopseng said seven candidates are scheduled for talks, and at least four others are on her list.

Among the candidates are four who have worked for the team before, including former head coach Casey Owens, current assistant Kevin Rice, and former assistants Deane Martin and Rob Spon. All but Spon had scheduled interviews as of Monday afternoon.

Several applicants with NBA assistant coaching experience are scheduled to be interviewed, including Mike Sanders, Rory White and Bob Thornton. Also scheduled for an interview is former Utah Flash assistant Dale Osbourne.

Kopseng added that she is also hoping to talk to Paul Woolpert, Chuck Davisson and Milton Barnes, the latter two suggestions coming from the D-League.

"The number of candidates keeps getting higher and higher,"she said. "All of them are good coaches. We just want to make it somebody who is a good fit, and we want to cover all our bases.

"… We're trying to be as fair as possible," she said. "It's important that we get the right person for our community, because we want our coach to be involved. Some people stand out more than others, and we want it to be a win-win on both sides."

Kopseng added that after the initial round of interviews, the list will be trimmed to three to five names. Those candidates then will be interviewed by a committee. Kopseng said the Wizards are hoping to finalize a decision and make an offer by July 9, but added that the timetable is tentative.

Owens was an assistant coach with the Wizards for three seasons - helping the team win two CBA titles - and a head coach for one. He guided Dakota to a 32-16 mark in 2004-05. The last two seasons he was an assistant for the Colorado 14ers, whom he helped win the 2009 D-League title.

Rice, who starred for the Wizards as a player, has served as an assistant two of the last three years. Martin was an assistant under Duane Ticknor in 2007-08. Spon - the former head coach of the Magic City Snowbears - had a brief stint as an assistant under Dave Bliss in 2005-06.

White, Sanders and Thorton all have NBA playing and coaching experience.

White has spent the last six seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers. He led the Fargo-Moorhead Beez to a pair of IBA championships in the 1990s.

Sanders was an assistant coach and director of player personnel for Asheville when the Altitude won two D-League titles. Last season he coached the CBA's Minot Skyrockets.

Thornton, a former Minnesota Timberwolves assistant, was a serious candidate when the Wizards were looking for a coach in 2005 and 2007.

Osbourne has coached in the CBA and D-League for the past decade, and is a protege of Ticknor's. He also has interim head coaching experience in both leagues.

Woolpert led the Yakima/Yakama SunKings to three CBA titles, and also posted the best single-season winning percentage in league history.

Davisson is an advance scout for the Los Angeles Lakers. He has nearly a decade of NBA experience as a scout and an assistant, and has worked for the likes of Phil Jackson and Larry Brown.

Barnes is currently the associate basketball coach at Southern Methodist University. He has head coaching experience at the D-League level, leading Greenville to the title in the league's inaugural season, and in college at Eastern Michigan. Barnes was also an assistant at the University of Minnesota.