Texan Mosaic

by NICK ALVARADO//Sports Editor

After having a successful season alongside women’s head basketball coach Cayla Petree, Brock Kimball is now the lone assistant women’s basketball coach at South Plains College.

“Coming from where I came from and being able to make that move up was satisfying, especially after the year we had last year and where we were headed but very satisfying.”

Last season, the Lady Texas returned to the Region V tournament in Brownwood, losing in the first round to Collin County Community College. Although, many positives were seen with a 20-win season and a plus .500 record in conference play.

This season, six players return along with a solid recruiting class and a sophomore transfer, which should add some excitement to the coming season.

“I think it’s a perfect combination,” Kimball said. “We got a lot of girls that really produce and been there before and then coming in with girls that were big names, people knew about them, and can learn from the experience that we have and can kinda play right away and help us.”

Kimball comes from a family who has been coaching basketball all over the state. It’s best to say that it’s in the genes to coach.

“My dad is a high school coach right now down in South Texas,” Kimball said. “My uncle coaches nearby, my sister coaches out in East Texas so it’s kind of a family thing. I kinda didn’t know what else to do but start coaching.”

Kimball says that his biggest coach that he has worked with is current Texas Tech men’s basketball coach, Chris Beard. Both Kimball and Beard coached at Angelo State University and since then, Beard made his mark on Kimball’s coaching career.

“I worked for him at Angelo State for two years and played for him at McMurry for one,” Kimball said. “It was really that senior year playing for him. I was thinking high school, didn’t really know what else to do. I sat down and talked to him and he was turning the big change.”

Kimball also said that current Angelo State men’s head basketball coach Cinco Boone also helped him get going on the coaching route and through a lot of things.

To start his career, Kimball started at Angelo State working as a graduate assistant, working for Beard at the time. Kimball also said that he was working on his master’s degree at Angelo State. Now, South Plains is his second stop in his young coaching career.

With Kimball playing in the Lone Star Conference during most of his playing career, the NJCAA has a different feel to what Kimball is used to seeing.

“It’s definitely a whole lot different,” Kimball said. “As a player, being in that league, it was you know, different playing and coaching. I guess the similarity is the type of players. That whole league [Lone Star Conference] is just athletes and guys that fly around and that’s definitely with JU CO basketball, especially in this league [Western Junior College Athletic Conference].”

In the new 2016-2017 Lady Texan season, expections are high in the coaching staff and for Kimball after last year’s performance.

“It’s very high,” Kimball said. “We want to surpass to what we did last year and keep the ball rolling.”