March 29, 2024

New coach likes Panther basketball potential

After many years of coaching boys basketball and working in athletic administration, Brent Douma is excited about his newest venture.

The son of former Northwestern College basketball coach Les Douma and brother of Central College men’s basketball coach Craig Douma is beginning his first season as a girls basketball coach at Creston. And liking it.

“Like I told the parents at the (parents) meeting, I really enjoy coaching girls and the focus that you get from them. The attention you get daily from them,” Douma said. “And on top of that, this is a really great group of girls.”

6 letterwinners

Douma inherits six of 10 letterwinners from last year’s 9-13 team that finished strong last year, going 6-5 in the final 11 games.

Chelcee Downing, Olivia Nielsen and Sadie Jones were graduating seniors. This year’s team also does not return junior post player Camryn Somers, a Division I swimming prospect for Waukee High School who is concentrating on training for that sport. She was the third-leading rebounder and fifth-leading scorer as a sophomore.

Otherwise, most of the production from a year ago returns, and coach Larry McNutt’s final team included an 11-8 junior varsity season and 9-3 freshman campaign.

“You never want to set a number (wins),” Douma said. “I told the girls, the goal for this program is to be a team that year in and year out, people are talking about Creston toward the top of the Hawkeye 10.”

The Panthers are again competing in Class 4A in the girls five-class format, but Douma said the school is “10 to 12” students from being passed up by growing 3A schools, which could drop Creston to 3A in future years.

“We’re really close to being 3A, Douma said. “We’ll just have to see what happens with enrollment in some of the schools right below us.”

H-10 title

Douma spent the last seven years at Glenwood, where he was assistant boys basketball coach for five years. Prior to that, he was head boys coach at Clarinda for four years. During his time at Clarinda, the Cardinals qualified for the state tournament and won a Hawkeye 10 title.

Douma, who is a seventh-grade math teacher at Creston Middle School, has also worked in athletic administration at Ballard and Cherokee, where current CHS Principal Bill Messerole was head football coach at the time.

Douma also coached at Alta prior to McNutt’s time as coach there.

With the Creston girls team, Douma sees potential in a faster tempo of play.

“I like to try to push the tempo and speed the game up a little bit,” Douma said, “because I think we have pretty good quickness with our guards and our posts are pretty athletic and can run the floor, too. Of course, we’re looking for a happy medium there. You don’t want to hurry and make turnovers.”

Much of the scoring power on this Creston team will again come from the interior. Jenna Taylor, 5-11 junior center, averaged a team-high 14.2 points last year while shooting 55.7 percent from the field and 85.4 percent at the free throw line. Both of those percentages set Creston five-player records.

Taylor was also the team’s second-leading rebounder.

First in that category was versatile senior Natalie Mostek, who averaged 7.4 rebounds and 10.5 points after a gradual recovery from a concussion in a preseason scrimmage at Adair-Casey. Douma expects improvement from her 31.6 percent shooting as a junior.

“We’re going to bring Natalie away from the basket a little bit this year, even though she’s a four (position), because she’s a good shooter who can put the ball on the floor,” Douma said. “Jenna is a smart player who knows how to use positioning inside.”

Cammy Rutherford, a quick-jumping 5-9 sophomore, can challenge for varsity post time as well, Douma said, and the squad also returns junior Becca Ross.

The guard corps is bolstered by a couple of “newcomers” in a sense, as senior Brenna Baker underwent knee surgery aggravating an injury on Jan. 7. She is back at full-speed as a promising shooting guard with some experience at point guard.

Also, junior Alli Thomsen has returned after a one-year absence, and offers a shooting touch from the wing, Douma said.

“I expect we’ll be zoned a lot, so we’ll need to be able to shoot it,” Douma said.

Senior Maria Mostek, junior Caitlin McIlravy and sophomore Lexie Little look to help at either the wing or point, as well. Junior Taylor Briley, a quick player who led the team in steals a year ago, figures to handle much of the point guard duties. She was second on the team to Downing last year in assists.

With that kind of depth in the guard court, look for Creston to apply some defensive pressure to generate transition offense.

“We want to get some transition baskets,” Douma said. “We’ll use some three-quarter court pressure.”

Several other candidates on the 14-member JV-varsity team could contribute at times, Douma said, and he’s happy there are enough freshmen (six) to field in a freshman season to gain valuable game experience.

Ryan McKim, who served as a McNutt assistant before taking football positions with Iowa State and Oklahoma, has returned as varsity assistant and Anthony Donahoo is the freshman coach.

Douma faces a situation where, like volleyball, the Hawkeye 10 is deep in talent from this year’s senior class across the league, creating challenges every night.

Rated opponents

The preseason ratings were released Wednesday and five conference teams are listed. Undefeated state champion Harlan (26-0) is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, while Lewis Central (17-6) is 13th.

In Class 3A, Shenandoah (17-6) is No. 6, Red Oak (16-8) is No. 8 and Carroll Kuemper Catholic is 10th. Red Oak guard Kate Walker recently signed a Division I letter-of-intent with Bucknell University.

Another opponent has a Division I player in Winterset, which plays at Creston on Dec. 1. Mariah Criswell signed with the University of Northern Iowa.

“It’s a tough schedule,” Douma said. “We’ll have to take a close look at them and figure out how to best play our opponents.”

Roster

(* — letterwinner)

Seniors — *Maria Mostek, *Brenna Baker, *Natalie Mostek.

Juniors — *Caitlin McIlravy, Jessica Beatty, *Taylor Briley, *Jenna Taylor, Alli Thomsen, Becca Ross.

Sophomores — Lexie Little, Madison Callahan, Rachel Shepherd, Logan Pettit, Cammy Rutherford.

Freshmen — Sophia Groumoutis, Kiersten Latham, Breanna Wallace, Chloe Hagle, Cayla Maitlen, Taylor Fredrickson.

Schedule

Nov. 24 — at Mount Ayr tourney vs. Lamoni, 6 p.m.

Nov. 25 — at Mount Ayr tourney, 6 or 7:45 p.m.

Dec. 1 — vs. Winterset, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 5 — vs. Glenwood, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 9 — at Shenandoah, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 12 — at Atlantic, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 16 — vs. Harlan, 6 p.m.

Dec. 19 — vs. Carroll Kuemper, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 5 — at Interstate 35 (Truro), 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 6 — at Lewis Central, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 10 — at Red Oak, 3:30 p.m.

Jan. 16 — at Denison, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 19 — vs. Osceola Clarke, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 20 — vs. Clarinda, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 23 — vs. Council Bluffs St. Albert, 6 p.m.

Jan. 27 — at Chariton, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 30 — vs. Shenandoah, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 3 — at Glenwood, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 6 — vs. Red Oak, 6 p.m.

Feb. 9 — vs. Atlantic, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 12 — at Clarinda, 7:30 p.m.