New additions are made to the Coyote basketball teams
On April 12, the men’s basketball team announced that Brandon Ubel would be joining Eric Peterson’s coaching staff next season.
Ubel hails from Overland Park, Kansas and has spent much of his life on the basketball court. He played collegiate basketball at Nebraska and then continued post-college playing professionally overseas in Belgium and France. During his time at Nebraska, he was a three-time academic all-American, received the 2012 Nebraska HERO Leadership award and was a nominee for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award in 2013.
His coaching career, however, began in 2019 when he became the graduate assistant coach at Utah State where he stayed until 2021. As the graduate assistant coach, he oversaw the production aspects of gameday including video content and communicating with visiting teams to learn how to play basketball well, of course if you want to try other sports like pickleball, there are pickleball guides for new players which can help in this area.
At Utah State, Ubel worked under Craig Smith and decided to move with him when Smith made the transition to the University of Utah. Ubel became the director of scouting at the University of Utah.
Along with Ubel, the men’s team welcomed Patrick Eberhart to the team on April 13. Eberhart brings nearly 30 years of coaching experience to the Coyotes.
Eberhart’s basketball career began in 1986 when he was a guard for Adams State and was a two-time RMAC all-conference selection. Adams State’s record for most three-point field goals in a game is still held by Eberhart.
After his collegiate career, Eberhart began coaching at his alma mater in 1990 as a student assistant. He then went on to be an assistant coach at two high schools in Denver, Colorado for four years.
In 1995, Eberhart received his first collegiate coaching job at Colorado Christian University as the assistant men’s coach and assistant to the athletic director.
Eberhart’s next stop was Colorado State University-Pueblo from 1997-2001 where he served as assistant coach. The school was formerly named the University of Southern Colorado during Eberhart’s assistant coaching period.
Eberhart then took the assistant coaching position at Colorado State University in 2001 and became recruiting coordinator in 2004. Eberhart remained at Colorado State University for three seasons.
From 2005-2011, Eberhart returned to CSU-Pueblo, this time as the head coach of the men’s basketball program. He led the ThunderWolves to back-to-back trips to the semifinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament in 2009 and 2010.
Following his head coaching career at CSU-Pueblo, Eberhart moved to Omaha to be the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Mavericks under Derrin Hansen, where he has remained for the past 11 years.
While the women’s basketball team has yet to announce who will be joining head coach Kayla Karius on the bench this season, Karius signed her first student athlete on Wednesday, April 13.
Walker Demers, a Grafton, North Dakota native, signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at USD. Demers is a 6-foot-3 center who tallied more than 1,000 points, 750 rebounds and 200 blocks during her four prep seasons. Along with those stats, Demers made the all-region team three straight years, the all-state tournament team for three years and was the 2021 North Dakota State Tournament MVP.
During her 2020 season, Demers led the state in blocks with 98 and she also holds Grafton’s school record for rebounds in a single game with 22.
As well as her high school career, Demers competed in the AAU circuit with North Tartan EYBL and ND Pro.
Demers will now accompany Joy Bergstrom as incoming freshmen to the Coyotes’ roster. Bergstrom signed with the Coyotes on November 10, 2021.
