Category: KCKCC

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

When it comes to adversity, Caroline Hoppock just might be the poster child.

Overcoming two car accidents, concussions, vertigo and back and shoulder injuries, the sophomore from Olathe East played roles in 78 basketball wins over the past three years.

“Were it not for all the injuries, Caroline would undoubtedly have been the best 3-point shooter I’ve ever had,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said.

Even then, her 109 threes are the fifth most in history and she’s seventh in record book for a single season with 59. In 15 games this past season, Hoppock averaged 2.6 treys a game. If played out over 32 games, she would have been very much in contention at breaking the single season mark of 87 held by former teammate Camryn Swanson.

As it is, she leaves tied for the single game record of eight set last year when she knocked down 8 of 11 shots against Fort Scott, the best one-game 3-point percentage ever (.727).

“Two of the three misses were air balls,” Hoppock said. “Either it was going in or it missed everything. I was getting the ball a lot and hyped up and the crowd was getting into it. It was weird, like no one guarding me or any of us. But with such a good team, most every game was pretty easy.”

Hoppock played in all 36 games last season, averaging 7.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in an invaluable role in KCKCC’s march to the NJCAA Division II national championship. This season, she averaged 13.3 points, shooting 41.7 percent from 3-point and .821 from the free throw line, both team bests.

However, it all might never have happened were it not the persistence of Hoppock and McKinstry. About a week before signing with KCKCC, Hoppock suffered a shoulder injury after her car was rear-ended. The mishap required surgery.

“I was so scared about my shoulder and back, I never expected I’d be able to play,” Hoppock said. “I remember Coach Mac told me, ‘I don’t care, I still want you.’ He was amazing through all the injuries. Never lost hope, way above what a coach should do to get me back on the floor.”

McKinstry first spotted Hoppock at a recruiting event in Wichita in the fall of 2016.

“I could tell Caroline was a strong guard with good size and a great looking shot,” McKinstry said. “As soon as her high school season began, Coach Missa Anderson and I tried to make as many of her games as possible.”

Six games into her freshman season, Hoppock hit her head on the floor on a rebound in a game at North Arkansas, suffering a concussion, bad headaches and vertigo that ultimately ended her season. Ironically, the injury came on the same floor that KCKCC won the 2019 national championship.

“As soon as we beat Graceland in the first game 121-66, I thought this team was special,” Hoppock said of the championship season. “We had really good connections on and off the court. It almost seemed magical as well as we played so coming off the bench was special. The games we lost was us shooting ourselves in the foot. Once we beat Johnson County (79-76 in overtime), we knew we could beat Highland and the national tournament was a walk through the park. The teams there had not played the schedule we had.”

On June 5, 2019, Hoppock was in yet another car accident.

“It was the day after we got our championship rings,” she said. The resulting back problems kept her out of this season’s first 15 games. When she returned, she knocked down five 3-pointers in each of her first three games and 23 in the first six, scoring 19 or more points in five of the six. “I really didn’t expect to make an impact, the team was playing so well without me; it was weird how well I was playing.

“This year we had so many freshmen. This conference is not easy plus all the studies and getting use to play for Coach Mac. People says he yells at us but he’s not yelling; he’s trying to make us better. You can’t take in personal; he just wants to get the job done.”

Looking back at her career, Hoppock calls it “the most unpredictable, crazy, fun, roller coaster ride ever. I never knew what was coming up next. I guess it’s just part of being an athlete. I was just very fortunate to have such good trainers to put up with all my injuries.”

As for next year?

“Kind of playing the waiting game,” she said. “I’ve got some mail and talked to some colleges. I have to be playing.”

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Brodi Byrd’s two-year basketball career at Kansas City Kansas Community College will go down as one of the best in history – a national championship and 57 wins.

Only twice have Lady Blue Devils teams won more games in back-to-back seasons. The 1976-1977 teams that finished fifth in the NJCAA Division I national tournament won 63; the first team to win a NJCAA DII national championship in 2015-2016 won 62.

For Byrd, her legacv can be summed up in just a few words. “League champion, region champion, national champion, left-handed 3-pointer, half-court shot, buzzer beater, 3-point record.”

Darting between three defenders, Byrd’s buzzer beater gave KCKCC a pivotal 75-73 win at Fort Scott Feb. 16, 2019.

“If we lost, we potentially would have finished in second place,” Byrd said. “I wasn’t into rebounding and coach was on me. I saw an opportunity and went for it.”

The left-handed 3-pointer came in a 64-60 win over Johnson County that clinched the 2019 Jayhawk Conference championship. With the shot clock about to expire, Byrd drained the only left-handed attempt of her career, a trey that held off a JCCC rally that had closed to within four points.

“Without a doubt the biggest play of the game,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “We were in trouble and she bailed us out.”

“It was so weird,” Byrd said. “I’ve looked at the video and it (the shot) looked so natural. There (wasn’t) any other option. I had to rush.” Her half-court shot came against Park University.

Her career highlight?

“The national championship, for sure,” she said. “It’s an experience not many get to feel. Everyone told me were going to win but I didn’t know. I was just a freshman. When we won, it was sort of a relief because of how hard we had worked all year.”

McKinstry first watched Byrd when she was a sophomore at Truman High School in Independence, Missouri.

“I was actually there to see Alix Wilson, who was a senior at St. Joseph Central,” McKinstry said. “I liked her ability to shoot the ball but she was also a good ball handler and actively defensively. Her senior year, I reached out to her coach and he had nothing but great things to say about her. So that’s when we began recruiting her pretty heavily.”

All-conference and all-district as a senior, she helped lead Truman to the Suburban Conference championship. Averaging 14 points, she played in three All-Star games. Byrd had 76 3-point goals as a freshman at KCKCC, the fourth most ever. A regular in the starting lineup the last half of the season (22 starts), she averaged 8.9 points, scoring in double figures in 15 games with a high of 23.

The lone veteran to play every game this season, Byrd averaged 10.3 points, shared the team lead in assists (2.4), was second in rebounds (4.8) and knocked down 56 3-pointers to give her the all-time record for career threes with 132. Scoring in double figures 17 times, she had a career high of 24 points.

“It doesn’t feel like this season is over,” Byrd said of this year’s 25-7 record with all seven losses coming to teams ranked in the Top 5 at one time or another. “We were capable of winning them all but we were so young and inexperienced. We didn’t understand what it took. I was hoping when we beat Highland everyone would understand what it took to win a big game.”

Her future now is up in the air.

“I’m undecided. I will take some visits. I’ll probably know in a month,” she said.

She’ll depart with a new-found appreciation for basketball at the community college level.

“Way better than I expected,” she said. “Definitely not what you see about junior colleges on-line and on TV.”