CCCC’s Kastrup hired as assistant at Idaho State

Devin Kastrup, the Cloud County Community College head men’s basketball coach for the past three seasons, has been hired as an assistant coach at Idaho State University.

Kastrup compiled a 51-44 record in his three seasons at Cloud County, including 36-36 in the Jayhawk Conference.

“Devin has done an outstanding job advancing the men’s basketball program in his three years at Cloud,” Cloud County Athletic Director Matt Bechard said. “I am very happy for Devin and Anna as they make the move to Idaho to start their family and begin a new challenge at ISU.”

Kastrup took over a Cloud County program that had finished 7-16 in a shortened 2021-2022 season.

“Coming to Cloud three years ago was a dream come true. At the time, there was not a job I would ever want more than to be the head coach at Cloud,” Kastrup said. “I was really excited to build this program, and I knew it could be special. And over the past three years we have kind of realized that.”

Cloud County finished 14-17 overall and 10-14 in the conference his first season.

The Thunderbirds were 16-16 overall and 11-13 in conference play in Kastrup’s second season and then 21-11 overall and 15-9 and fifth in the Jayhawk this past season.

It was the first time Cloud County had won at least 20 games since the 2016-2017 season.

“It has been an absolute blessing being a coach in the best junior college conference in the country with an amazing community,” Kastrup said. “I am still a young coach and my dream has always been to be a Division I head coach. So as you go through that you kind of go through what the next opportunity is to get closer to that. Just like I tell all our guys all of the time ‘our goal is to help them get to the Division I level or the highest level they can,’ it is the same goal for myself.”

Idaho State is an NCAA Division I program that competes in the Big Sky Conference.

“Because we have had such great kids and good players, guys who have really bought into what we are doing, it has really given me an opportunity to go. I am really excited about it. “I am going to miss a lot of people here. I am going to miss our fans and our administration here, who I think were extremely supportive of me the entire time,” Kastrup said. “When you talk to people outside of Concordia, and if they know Cloud, they say there are really good people here. And that is true.”

Kastrup will be joined at Idaho State University by 6-7 guard Cheikh Sow, who averaged 12.8 points, 7.6 rebound, 2.2 steals and 2.1 assists per game for Cloud County this past season.

Sow averaged 10.9 points and 7.1 rebounds in his two seasons with the Thunderbirds.