Nixa basketball star Kael Combs has never ever considered himself a mountains male but when he went on a new check out to Wyoming, it was challenging for him to not notice the landscapes all over him.
Amid other products he discovered was a spot the place he could mature on the basketball courtroom and perform in a conference that just despatched a staff to the nationwide championship. With the gorgeous scenery and a promising basketball long run in advance of him, Combs realized it was exactly where he desired to be.
“I just felt at ease,” Combs explained in a mobile phone job interview with the News-Chief. “All of the coaches that I talked to considered in me. It’s also just seriously stunning out there. It just all felt right.”
Combs, the Information-Leader’s 2022-23 Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year, introduced Saturday night time that he dedicated to participate in college basketball at Wyoming and that he will be a Cowboy.
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound position guard created the preference in excess of the likes of Abilene Christian, Missouri State, Southeast Missouri Point out and Northwest Missouri Point out. He is coming off a senior year in which he averaged 23.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists in his very first calendar year as the program’s setting up level guard — a position the Cowboys informed him they prepare to keep him at when he plays in the Mountain West.
Combs said his connection with new Wyoming assistant coach Bryston Williams performed a major component in the selection. Williams had been an assistant at Indiana State in the first two seasons for the Sycamores below Josh Schertz. Williams was recruiting Combs to enjoy at Indiana Point out ahead of he created the shift out west.
“He advised me that I was the initially that he termed when he obtained there,” Combs said. “He had a ton of have faith in in me though he moves from the Missouri Valley to the Mountain West. I like Mentor (Jeff) Linder a ton and he operates very well with guards and is form of a guard-dominant of brain as a head coach.”
The selection to participate in basketball at Wyoming also was a conclusion to go after hoops about football. In his two seasons of playing football at Nixa, Combs turned into 1 of the ideal wide receivers in the spot and captivated each FBS and FCS offers. He said all through his junior calendar year that he thought he would wind up taking part in soccer collegiately but basketball generally had his heart in the close.
Combs also said he regarded taking the prep faculty route prior to his senior yr when his recruitment slowed down. All those feelings swiftly went away when he went on a tear by means of the ultimate months of the significant faculty basketball year which turned into the likes of Abilene Christian and other folks getting in the combine while a faculty like Missouri Point out kicked the tires on recruiting him again when it had slowed down about past seasons.
Wyoming was never ever in the photograph until finally about a month ago when Williams manufactured the go from Indiana Condition to the Cowboys. After the latest visits to Abilene Christian and Wyoming, Combs put the pen to paper and signed with the Mountain West school — a meeting that just sent San Diego Point out to the national championship.
“I just felt like there have been additional eyes on the Mountain West,” Combs mentioned. “It truly is a larger convention and I’m heading to have an opportunity to play next 12 months with them only having 4 returning men from last year’s roster. Coaches have been telling me to appear in and consider what I assume is mine and that’ll set me up for the 12 months immediately after that. I believe it is really the best position that’ll much better me on and off the court.”
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can call him at 417-371-6987, by electronic mail at [email protected] or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL.
