Cloud County Community College Athletic Director Matt Bechard has announced the hiring of Devin Kastrup as the school’s sixth men’s basketball coach in the program’s 55-year history.
Kastrup comes to Concordia after spending the past two seasons at Southwestern Iowa Community College where he led the Spartans to 23 wins in two seasons and a 2021 NJCAA Region XI Championship game appearance.
“Devin will bring a high level of energy, organization, and accountability to our men’s basketball program” remarked Bechard. “I believe he will attract talented young men to Cloud County Community College and produce a product that will make our stakeholders proud.” “He and his fiancé are eager to embrace the campus community as well as Concordia and our service area.”
Two years removed from finishing third in all of NJCAA Division II, Kastrup would be tasked with taking over a SWCC that would finish with just three wins in 2018-19 and manage to more than triple the number of wins for the Spartans in 2019-20 as Southwestern would finish with 10 wins. Two players from the 2019-20 team would be named All-Region XI selections as Kastrup would then lead the Spartans to 13 wins this past season which included five Top-20 victories.
Southwestern would beat NJCAA Division I number-four ranked Indian Hills in the regular-season to go along with a win over eventual NJCAA Division II National Champion Des Moines Area Community College as the Spartans would finish 11th nationally in scoring defense, 20th nationally in field goal percentage defense, third nationally in made three-point field goals, and 24 nationally in free throw percentage. Three players from the 2020-21 squad would be recognized on the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) All-Region Teams for SWCC.
Prior to taking over the helm of Southwestern’s men’s basketball team, Kastrup was the assistant men’s basketball coach at his alma mater, Western Colorado University. During his first year coaching at Western, 2017-18, he helped guide the program to more than double their wins from the previous year and earn more wins during a single season than the team had earned since 2012 as the Mountaineers made the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) playoffs for the first time in five seasons. The next two years, Kastrup would coach four all-conference selections, including one first team selection. The team led the RMAC in academic all-conference selections with seven in 2018-19.
Kastrup played professionally for three seasons in Spain and China. During Kastrup’s first season overseas, he was named Rookie of the Year. Kastrup’s second season was cut short due to an injury. At that time, spring 2017, he returned to the United States and joined the coaching staff at the University of Maine at Presque Isle for the second half of their season. He was an associate head coach for The Force Basketball, in Colorado Springs, CO, during the summers from 2015-17.
A native of Colorado Springs, CO, Kastrup played collegiately at Southwestern Iowa Community College from 2011-2013 where he would earn his Associate of Arts Degree. Kastrup would then transfer to Western Colorado University where he finished his collegiate playing career while earning a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and sports science with an emphasis in sport and fitness management. Serving as team captain for both the Spartans and Mountaineers, Kastrup would earn all-conference accolades while playing for the Spartans and led the Mountaineers in rebounds, blocked shots, and three-point field goal percentage.
https://cloudtbirds.com/news/2021/5/5/devin-kastrup-named-cloud-county-mens-basketball-coach.aspx
