Devin Kastrup was named the sixth Cloud County Community College men's basketball coach in the program's 55-year history on May 5th, 2021.
Kastrup comes to Concordia after spending the past two seasons at Southwestern Iowa Community College where he led the Spartans to 23 wins in two seasons and a 2021 NJCAA Region XI Championship game appearance.
2022-23:
This past season saw Kastrup lead Cloud County to more improvement year-over-year as the T-Birds would go 16-16 overall record in addition to earning their first NJCAA Region VI Tournament victory in eight years. A 10-3 start to the season would see the T-Birds earn an NJCAA Division I Basketball National Ranking for the first time since January 6, 2015 by being ranked #21 in the country after seeing three of their 10 victories come over nationally-ranked opponents. The season would see 12 of Cloud County's 32 games come against NJCAA nationally-ranked foes, with the T-Birds earning victories in six of their 12 games against ranked opponents and securing an NJCAA Region VI Tournament home game for the first time in four years. Three players from the 2022-23 squad (Corey Sawyer Jr., Joe Kearney, and Justin Graham) would all earn All-KJCCC honors with Kearney landing on the KJCCC All-Defensive Team after leading CCCC to the top scoring defense (67.1 points) and opponent field goal percentage (39.9 percent) in the league.
2021-22:
In his first season with the T-Birds, Kastrup would lead CCCC to 14 wins, a seven-game improvement from the prior year which was highlighted by a road victory over number-eight nationally-ranked Hutchinson Community College and a home win over number 16-ranked Garden City Community College. Of the 14 wins for Cloud County, 10 would come in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference to mark just the second time in a six-year span that the T-Birds would record at least 10 conference wins in a single season. Defensively, Cloud County would lead KJCCC Division I schools (13 teams) in points per game allowed (67.2 points) and ranked second in opponent field goal percentage (38.8 percent). In postseason awards, Nate Duckworth would be an All-KJCCC selection for the T-Birds.
Prior To Cloud County:
Two years removed from finishing third in all of NJCAA Division II, Kastrup would be tasked with taking over a SWCC that would finish with just three wins in 2018-19 and manage to more than triple the number of wins for the Spartans in 2019-20 as Southwestern would finish with 10 wins. Two players from the 2019-20 team would be named All-Region XI selections as Kastrup would then lead the Spartans to 13 wins this past season which included five Top-20 victories.
Southwestern would beat NJCAA Division I number-four ranked Indian Hills in the regular-season to go along with a win over eventual NJCAA Division II National Champion Des Moines Area Community College as the Spartans would finish 11th nationally in scoring defense, 20th nationally in field goal percentage defense, third nationally in made three-point field goals, and 24 nationally in free throw percentage. Three players from the 2020-21 squad would be recognized on the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) All-Region Teams for SWCC.
Prior to taking over the helm of Southwestern's men's basketball team, Kastrup was the assistant men's basketball coach at his alma mater, Western Colorado University. During his first year coaching at Western, 2017-18, he helped guide the program to more than double their wins from the previous year and earn more wins during a single season than the team had earned since 2012 as the Mountaineers made the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) playoffs for the first time in five seasons. The next two years, Kastrup would coach four all-conference selections, including one first team selection. The team led the RMAC in academic all-conference selections with seven in 2018-19.
Kastrup played professionally for three seasons in Spain and China. During Kastrup's first season overseas, he was named Rookie of the Year. Kastrup's second season was cut short due to an injury. At that time, spring 2017, he returned to the United States and joined the coaching staff at the University of Maine at Presque Isle for the second half of their season. He was an associate head coach for The Force Basketball, in Colorado Springs, CO, during the summers from 2015-17.
A native of Colorado Springs, CO, Kastrup played collegiately at Southwestern Iowa Community College from 2011-2013 where he would earn his Associate of Arts Degree. Kastrup would then transfer to Western Colorado University where he finished his collegiate playing career while earning a bachelor's degree in exercise science and sports science with an emphasis in sport and fitness management. Serving as team captain for both the Spartans and Mountaineers, Kastrup would earn all-conference accolades while playing for the Spartans and led the Mountaineers in rebounds, blocked shots, and three-point field goal percentage.
