On May 29, Tim Sandquist was hired to be the Kirkwood Community College’s men’s head basketball coach, replacing former head coach Bryan Peterson. Sandquist is from Northwest Kansas Tech where he coached for eight years.
Q: What has your experience at Kirkwood been like so far?
A: It has been good. I am very fortunate to be here. The people have been great and I have a great aiding from Athletic Director Doug Wagemester and I am just fortunate to be here.
Q: Why did you leave your previous job in Kansas to come to Kirkwood?
A: Kirkwood’s name and tradition around the Midwest in the basketball community is second to none. I was extremely fortunate to be selected out of a group of talented candidates. We are very grateful to Wagemester and the community for selecting me.
It was an opportunity to take over a program coming off a historic session. Jobs like that do not come around very often. I think a lot of those factors came into it for why I took this job.
Q: Have you met the team yet and what do you think about them?
A: We met during the interview process and were able to get together in June and play in a new life period for junior colleges and we have been playing pickup games and lifting in the weight room.
The group is as advertised. We have 11 returning players from a national championship season, which is rare. We have some great guys that value winning and what goes into that.
Q: What would you like to see in the upcoming season?
A: I want to see us be competitive and care for each other’s success. I want to see us be one group and one unit. From a play standpoint, I want to see us be the best defensive team in the conference and the best rebounding team in the conference.
I want people to see a fun but tough-minded group of guys who represent Kirkwood the right way.
Q: What is your favorite part about coaching basketball?
A: The relationships that you form with your players. That is why I’m in it. It’s not just about winning games it is so much more that goes into it and so many more important things that go into it than just winning games.
It’s developing relationships with your players that will last 20 years down the road. Once they leave Kirkwood they will be a better student, a basketball player and a better man.
Q: What is something people do not know about you but should?
A: I come across as being laid back and easy-going but I’m actually a very competitive person who wants to win at everything I do. Off the court, I’m a nice guy but once I step between those lines, I mean business.
Q: What are your plans to promote the basketball team?
A: The biggest thing we can do to promote is win. Four year colleges love guys who come from winning programs. That is the biggest thing have a successful season.
On top of that we will use the contacts we have in the basketball community to reach out to guys we have relationships with and say “we think you should recruit these guys.”
In October we will go to three jamborees Ames Iowa, Denver Colorado and Rockford Illinois to play at exposer events for our guys, and get their name out there. So we do a lot of things but ultimately in this day and age of social media its so easy to we use social media, twitter account and things like that to promote us.
Categories: Basketball, Sports
