|
|
With Andy Feddema’s resignation, the boys’ basketball team was in need of a new head coach. Andy’s Assistant Coach Keaton Riley applied for the position and was recently hired to fill in for the popular Feddema, who is leaving to teach school in Jordan, Minnesota. Said Andy of the hire, “He (Keaton) was my assistant last year. I believe he will do great in this role.”
When interviewed about his new position as head coach, Keaton replied, “I am excited for this opportunity. I love this community and I am very excited to have a much larger footprint than just the county’s probation officer. This basketball program will be about much more than just winning and losing, this program will be intending to help mold these student athletes into excellent young men, and eventually excellent contributing members of our community.”
Keaton has a big background in sports. He grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, graduating from Rochester John Marshall High School in 2012. While there he lettered in basketball, football, and baseball while there. Following high school Keaton attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and played college football all four years there, starting multiple seasons at offensive line. He graduated with a double major in sociology and criminology in 2016.
When asked about high school sports, Keaton said, “I played basketball all four years in high school and began playing at the age of four. I did not play basketball in college, instead playing football at UWRF. I played intramural basketball during my freshman and sophomore years while at UWRF.”
Coaching is somewhat new to Keaton, but he feels he has the background to build a successful program at I.S.D. 166.
“I have been an assistant basketball coach here at Cook County just this past season. I am also the 7th and 8th grade football coach for the school. I lived and worked as a probation officer in the twin cities since graduating college and moved up here in 2020. During those years in the cities, I focused mostly on my career and did not give myself much free time to pursue other interests… Now that I am in a wonderful community like Cook County, I am very excited to pursue my coaching interests. Although I have only one formal year of coaching experience, I grew up in a successful basketball program at a large school (Rochester John Marshall) and spent four years in a collegiate football program. In both those experiences, I learned what it takes to run a successful program. In time, this program at Cook County has the potential to be a successful program, these kids are wonderful and hard working. Through the ups and downs of the 2021-2022 season, these kids did not quit.
Good basketball programs keep the kids engaged year-round, and Keaton promised “a summer program will be implemented, and scrimmages will be played this summer around the Duluth area, details of this are still being finalized, but it will be similar to the summer programs of the past seasons, with a few adjustments.
“This team is incredibly young; I find it important that these student athletes gain as much game experience as possible. Open gyms, including the weight room, will also be held multiple times a week this summer. With student athletes from both the east and west ends of this county, logistics can be difficult, so I am currently brainstorming some ideas to give opportunities to all members of the program. I love the idea of incentivizing attendance at these summer programs, and I am currently thinking of ways to implement that. This program will be built from the ground up and developing a culture that basketball is a commitment that is larger than just the season, will be huge. Fortunately, these student athletes are hardworking individuals, and I am confident in every one of their abilities to improve this offseason. For every one of these athletes, fundamentals will be a primary focus.”
Will you stay with last year’s offense and defense? Or will you try another system? Keaton was asked.
“That is a bit of a difficult question to answer at this time. We are losing a lot of varsity minutes from last season, including an All-Polar League player. This summer will be a good time to try out different things, both offensively and defensively. I am excited to try out a few different things. What offense and defense we run next season will be a representation of what best fits our team. One thing that will be emphasized is tenacity on the defensive end. We have hard working individuals on this team, and I would love to turn that into aggressiveness on that end of the floor.”
Will you work with the youth coaches and try to keep everyone on the same page?
“Yes, and this idea might be what most excites me. Like I previously said, this program will be successful when built from the ground up. That means youth programs, middle school programs are incredibly important. Almost like a minor league system in professional sports, this is where real progress in student athlete’s talent progresses rapidly. We have some excellent youth and middle school coaches, along with some excellent youth teams right now. Continuing this is important. Keeping these teams together will also be important. Most winning programs in this state have excellent youth systems in place. One new thing I would like to implement is having our middle school teams start to learn similar offensive and defensive systems that the varsity team will be running. However, fundamentals, including teamwork, at both these levels will be of the utmost importance.”
Leave a Reply