When the Iowa Falls-Alden boys basketball team begins practices next week, it’ll have a new head coach.
Mike Holm is getting set to take over the program after previously serving as an assistant.
“I am really excited to get things going here,” Holm says. “It’s my first year at Iowa Falls-Alden as the head coach. I’ve been lucky enough to be down there for a couple of years now. And I got to be in the middle school and do a little eighth grade basketball. And then I volunteered on the varsity staff for a couple of years. So I’ve got to know the boys that way. So I’m not coming into this not knowing what I have or who does what. So I’m really comfortable with knowing the kids. The other thing I’m really lucky with is I’ve got a great group of boys to work with. They’re very coachable. They’re really excited to get the season going. So I’m looking forward to that first practice coming up and seeing what we can do as a team.”
The Cadets are expected to have five players with prior starting experience. Senior Carter Weaver led last year’s team with 11.4 points per game on 45 percent shooting. Senior Kale Kalous was the third-leading scorer last year with 9.7 per game.
Holm hopes the team is able to show a level of scrappiness.
“You’ve got to give me 100 percent all the time. You’ve got to be a high motor person. And you’ve got to be willing to dive on the floor for loose balls, dive into the stands for loose balls, rebound, do all those little things. And if you can do those things, I’m going to find a spot for you. I’m not too worried about our offense. We’ve got guys that can score and shoot it pretty well. But we have to be able to do all those little things. We can’t go out and just hope we can outscore the other team, because teams in the conference are just too good for that. So we’re gonna have to do all those little things. And those are the things as coaches, we’re really gonna be watching in that first part of practice next week is, do we have kids willing to do those little things and be leaders like that on the court?”
They’ll begin the season Monday, December 2 by hosting West Marshall.
Mike Holm interview:
