RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Just a few weeks removed from the end of her volleyball season, Olivia Kieffer is gearing up for her sophomore campaign with the Rapid City Christian girls’ basketball team.
In years past, she would finish up a volleyball season that was coached by her mother, Elizabeth Kieffer, before moving on to basketball under AJ Trennepohl. This year is a bit different, however, as the new Lady Comets basketball head coach isn’t only a familiar face to the program, but a very familiar face to Olivia.
Joe Kieffer, Olivia’s father, has taken over the reigns of the Rapid City Christian squad after serving as an assistant last season, meaning Olivia is transitioning from being coached by her mother to being coached by her father. While some may consider it a curious situation or find it problematic, Olivia doesn’t see it that way.
“I really enjoy it, and they both bring super different things, but awesome things,” Olivia, a 5-foot-10 guard, said of her parents. “It’s a good change, but I feel so blessed to be able to be coached by both of them.”
Joe is no stranger to coaching his daughter, as he’s taught her the game since she was in second grade. High school basketball is, of course, different than elementary and middle school basketball, and he said he recognizes the different approaches to it, especially as the program leader. He is grateful their dynamic does work.
“Thankfully, we have a really good relationship or else it could get really awkward,” he said with a chuckle. “She says she really enjoys it. She really likes that. Growing up as a coach’s kid, there’s a lot of pluses to it and a lot of minuses to it, but we hope the pluses outweigh all those minuses.”
Joe said he’s taught Olivia that her last name and her connection to the coaching staff doesn’t guarantee her anything in sports, and that she needs to earn everything on her own merits. In response, he added, she’s done just that, the Rapid City Journal reported.
“Olivia’s a very driven player,” he said. “She doesn’t need her parents to coach her to get to where she’s at. She’s got that mindset, and she likes to be challenged and she appreciates the hard work it takes.”
Her father and mother have a few differences in coaching styles and methods, Olivia said, but it’s mostly similar. While they push their players to work hard, they always look for places to lighten things up.
“They both hold us all to a super high standard, but both practices are always really fun,” she said of volleyball and basketball. “We find a way to have fun.”
Under Trennepohl, the Lady Comets finished the 2019-20 season one game over .500 and were knocked out of postseason contention following a close 63-58 loss to Lead-Deadwood in the Region 8 tournament.
Heading into this season, Joe Kieffer said he and Trennepohl decided to swap coaching duties as Trennepohl takes on more full-time administrative responsibilities with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the two discussed the future of girls’ basketball at Rapid City Christian.
“We talked about the level of accountability the program should get to, and we just mutually agreed that it might be better if we switched roles, so that’s what we did,” Joe Kieffer said. “You have to switch your mindset as a coach because the assistant’s role is very different from the head coach’s role, and so I switched mindsets, got excited about it and here we are.”
He wants to put the program on the map in terms of being a perennial contender, especially with RC Christian, a Class A school, moving to the Black Hills Conference next season. While they compete against strong teams, he said his squad’s typical Class B slate - seven of their 16 scheduled opponents hail from Class B - has them lagging in their endeavor to develop a “true program.”
For the 2020-21 season, the Lady Comets are emphasizing outworking their opponents, and outrebounding them.
“You can only have so many things you-re going to focus on, and that’s definitely what we-re going to focus on,” Joe Kieffer said. “We don’t have a lot of experience with girls playing in offseasons, so our basketball IQ as a team is lower than a lot of opponents, but you can really make up for that with a little attitude and a little effort.”
Morgan Swarthout, a 5-foot-9 senior forward, said her team isn’t focused on wins and losses but simply playing their best. If they’re able to fix some of last season’s pitfalls, however, positive results could happen.
“Definitely talking with each other and really communicating on defense, and then rebounding as well, making sure we’re finding our girls and boxing them out,” Swarthout said. “If we can do that, we’ll have a good chance at winning some games.”
Olivia Kieffer said the Lady Comets’ success this season will depend on cohesion, with players knowing their assignments, reading the game, but not acting like “robots” on the court.
“I think we can win a lot of games this year, but that’s not really where our focus is,” she said. “We’re just trying to go out there and focus; be the best we can and just execute what we know how to execute.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.