Philip Klett making transition from Center Point-Urbana girls’ basketball program to boys’

CEDAR RAPIDS - Philip Klett won a few basketball games as head coach at Center Point-Urbana. A lot of them, actually.

And he’s still winning, truth be told.

It’s just that he’s doing it with the Stormin’ Pointers boys’ program now instead of the girls’. CPU is 3-0 going into its Wamac Conference game Friday night against Vinton-Shellsburg.

“I thought it’d be a huge difference. It’s really (not),” Klett said. “Obviously the athleticism of it is different. There have been certain things that worked before that we’re still able to do, and there are a few things that we’ve had to tweak. It has helped to have a couple staff members who have been around the boys’ staff before, and I’ve had a couple join me. So we’ve had a nice mix.

“We have kind of blended some things together, so it’s good. There are a few things I couldn’t use before, and now we’re able to try them a little bit.”

Klett was head girls’ coach at Center Point-Urbana for 17 years, making it to the state tournament seven times in a nine-year span between 2014 and 2022. That included a Class 3A championship in 2019.

But Mike Halac was bumped up this school year to activities director, leaving the head varsity boys’ position open. Klett decided fill that opening.

His son, Grady, is on the sophomore team in the program.

“We’re trying to piece everything today,” Klett said. “Obviously as the year goes on, we’ll kind of figure out what this team is good at and utilize that. There is a lot of good stuff out there that you want to use, but if it doesn’t fit our personnel, you can’t do it.”

Klett has walked into a pretty good situation. CPU returned three starters and four of its top five scorers from last season’s team, one that finished 14-8 and won its division in the Wamac Conference.

Those starters are Cooper Grimm, Cayle Estling and Kinnick Covington. Noah Estling and Lucas Lopata have ascended into the starting lineup this season.

Klett said he has been pleased that the scoring has been spread out in his team’s first three games: wins of 76-57 over DeWitt Central, 62-43 over Williamsburg and 78-37 over South Tama. Center Point-Urbana is on the road Friday night, then hosts Burlington on Saturday.

“We have seven seniors and eight juniors,” Klett said. “Then we play a sophomore, too (Hayden Covington). So we have good upperclassmen, have a handful of guys with varsity experience playing, then we’re piecing in a couple of other new guys. (Our cupboard) is not bare at all.

“We’ve got some nice pieces, and they kind of know the way they’ve done it. But I’m trying to mix in what I want to do, some different terminology. I’m sure there are going to be some growing pains, but it’s gone pretty well so far. Obviously we know we’re going to run into some times when things aren’t going well. It’s how do we adjust and figure that stuff out? It’ll all work out, we’ve just got to be patient and understand it’s a long season.”

Around the hoop

– West Central is 2-1 in the very early going, which may not sound like too much. But consider the Blue Devils were 1-22 last season, 1-21 the season before and 2-21 the season before that.

In fact, West Central has won 18 games combined in the previous nine seasons. The wins this season have been 68-62 over Postville and 58-41 over Tripoli.

Junior Milton Cushion has led the way so far, averaging 19.3 points in his team’s first three games.

– Junior guard Jerimiah Washpun went off for 40 points in Iowa City Liberty’s season-opening game last week. Unfortunately, Josiah Harrington had 45 in North Scott’s 87-76 win.

– All-state guard Brady Boulton had a 42-point game for Montezuma last week in his team’s 70-67 loss to Pekin.

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