With summer turning into fall, that means basketball season is on its way and Kirkwood Community College looks to continue its success being ranked in the top 10 for both the men’s and women’s teams.
The men are coached by Tim Sandquist who is going into his fourth year coaching the Eagles. The team was 25-7 last year, losing in the regional championship in overtime to Iowa Lakes.
This offseason the Eagles made an addition to the coaching staff in hiring Jake Lorbach. Sandquist said, “He is a hardworking and energetic coach that comes highly recommend.”
Also during the offseason, the Eagles ended up losing three of their four highest scorers in Noah King, Justin Wrecker and Cassius Brooks. But with those three gone due to graduation, Ayouba Berthe will be leading the team going into the 2023-2024 season.
Sandquist said, “Ayouba was the rock for us last year, we couldn’t take him off the floor and be the same without him when he is off.”
This season, Sandquist emphasized, “It goes back to how we hope to be known for like playing really good defense, creating turnovers and being a good rebounding team while also running and sharing the ball offensively.”
And with confidence sky high for the Eagles, Berthe said, “Our goal is to be the best defensive team in the league this year compared to other teams we are bigger at every position then most teams so I think right now we are the best defensive team in the league.”
The women are coached by Kim Muhl who is going into his astonishing 35th season as head coach, finishing last year with a record of 32-3 and winning third place in the region.
This year the Eagles have a very young team with only five sophomores. Muhl stated, “Zhakyla Evans is pretty good. Emilly Dreckman, Demetria Prewitt, Kaylee Corbin, and then Ellie Etjen all five of them are solid. We’re just trying to find depth right now. I think our top five or six are really solid but then after that we have to get some players that figure it out and that’s where we are at.”
This year the Eagles are looking to have more of a balanced attack spread out between the sophomores rather than being led by one specific player with their main focus being team defense and relying on one another to continue their success going into the 2023-2024 season.
Ayouba Berthe on where his game has improved the most since last year: My game is pretty much the same but I am just doing the things I was doing last year better.
I’ve also added some to my outside game instead of just scoring in the post. My shooting got better and my defense is in the same field.
I never take plays off [especially] with rebounding because that’s just how our team is built, we just like to get out there every time.
Head Coach Kim Muhl on how the team has progressed this offseason: In the offseason it is hard on our level to do a lot but the players work. You don’t have the freshman quite under your thumb yet.
So we’ve been working a lot defensively because if you don’t defend then you can’t win. I think this group can defend well from just watching them and they’re fairly athletic so they’re just finding their way right now.
Categories: Basketball, Sports
