'Having bloomed into a capable shooting guard, she needed an offer tendered her way if she was going to continue.
Such a proposal came, and Kayla Strobel, a 2012 Bayfield graduate, will play basketball at the NCAA Division III level with Concordia University in Austin, Texas. She was either her team's top gun outright or tied for the title in seven games last season, twice booking a season-high 18 points for Colorado Northwestern Community College.
Regularly abbreviated 'CTX,' the Tornados, part of the 12-team American Southwest Conference, are coming off an 11-15 season in 2013-14. But despite a so-so record, Concordia did do one thing quite well-and better than all but 17 other D-III teams, in fact: Get the ball, something which plays right into Strobel's aggressive style.
Out of the 431 squads statistically ranked, the Tornados' 12.7 steals per game landed them 18th and helped them into the #34 spot in turnover margin (+5.35 per).
One of Northwestern's bright spots during a difficult winter, Strobel saw action in all 29 games-CNCC finished 7-22 overall.
Strobel totaled 231 points in the '13-14 campaign, averaging nearly eight per outing-both ranking third on the team, as did her court time count-with about three rebounds per. As a freshman on a 14-17 team, Strobel had averaged 2.5 ppg and 0.6 rpg in just under six minutes per.
FRIEND IN HIGHER PLACES? One can't help but wonder if current West Texas A&M coach Mark Kellogg, who built Durango-based Fort Lewis College into a national force while Strobel attended Bayfield, helped sell Concordia on the former Lady Wolverine and [possibly] vice versa.
Concordia boss Matt Wallis, now entering his second year with the Tornados, had been a former assistant at D-I Montana State University along with Kellogg on the Bobcats' bench from 2001-05.
