By Jim Bastian

sports@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Kory Kettner, who has been an assistant basketball coach to Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Craig Morgan from 2016-2018 and then this past season, has been named to replace Morgan as head boys basketball coach for the Chargers next season.

Kettner replaces Morgan, who resigned after this season after 26 seasons at the helm of the Chargers.

“I am really excited for this opportunity,” Kettner said.

Kettner has an extensive and impressive basketball resume, playing high school basketball at Nicollet High School and then college basketball at Minnesota State-Mankato from 1992-1996.

He then returned to Nicollet as head boys basketball coach from 1999-2004. From 2005-2013 he was the color commentator for Maverick basketball before starting the MN Rise in 2013.

Kettner said that as head coach, his philosophy will change.

“Everybody has certain things that they want to try and do,” he said. “The one thing that I want to carry over for sure is the toughness that Craig always had his guys playing with — they were always competitive and opposing teams knew that they were in for a battle when they played and each time you played against him.”

Kettner said that he wants his team to look for transition baskets.

“That is something that we are going to want to do, but that does not mean that we want to settle for quick, average shots,” he said. “I call it the ‘push to be patient’ type of philosophy where if we have something we want to take advantage of it, and if we don’t we want to be patient and look for a ball reversal or an inside touch before we start chucking 3s.”

Kettner said that he is pretty much 24/7 basketball.

“It is the kind of way that it turned out for me,” he said. “I love basketball and the game has given me a lot through the years and hopefully I can give a lot back here moving forward.”

Kettner said that playing summer basketball is important.

“If you want to be competitive and play at a high level, you have to have basketball in your hands –you do not have to play a ton of tournaments — but you do have to work on individual skills in the offseason,” he said. “There has to be a balance where the players are getting better individually and we want to do some team stuff. This summer will be a little more important just for me getting some things in that I feel we want to use through the winter.”

This year’s Chargers were a young team, so Kettner will have some youth and experience to work with.

“We lost a couple of seniors, but everyone else is back,” he said. “So there is a lot of upside, but that upside does not mean anything if you do not work and put the time into it.”

He also wants his team to have two identities.

“I want them to be competitive and tough,” he said. “Those two words go hand in hand. I want to see toughness on both sides of the ball. We want to get better each day.”