Looking forward to Clarke Indians girls basketball

What made you want to take the varsity basketball job at Clarke?

“My dad (Bruce Subbert of Stanton) was actually my basketball coach in middle school and high school and I fell in love with the game when I was in elementary going to all of his practices and stuff and being a gym rat in my middle school and high school years.”

“Basketball has always been my true love.”

What characteristics will your team embody?

“We’re actually doing quite a few things we did last year. Coach (Eric) Zoske built up a pretty good program, so we’re building off of that and trying to take things to the next level. Especially this year with a lot of sophomores last year that are now juniors who are going to be a big part of our team.”

What excited you about bringing back a talented and experienced junior class?

“A few of them have played summer ball, with a team from Indianola as they’ve gotten some good experience throughout the summer. We’ve been playing at I-35 on Sundays, and some of our freshman and sophomores have stepped up and impressed me.”

What do expect of this year’s competition?

“We have Mount Ayr and Central Decatur right in a row. Those will be some pretty challenging games. We’re looking forward to that. With our conference, I think it’s kind of up in the air. There were quite a few seniors, so it’s kind of who steps up to take the top spot.”

What do you want your team to play like?

“Motivation, hustle and effort. People are going to make mistakes, but as long as they’re hustling and not giving up on plays, that’s going to be part of it.”

How do you think being a varsity head coach and playing will be different?

“I’ve only been on the coaching side for two years. I was an assistant at Boyer Valley where I was at before Clarke. It’ll be interesting. I have coach (Jeff) Ehrardt, who has been a basketball coach for a long time too, so I’m going to be looking to him for a lot of help and guidance.”

What will people see when they come to Clarke games this year?

“They’re going to see a lot of up and down. We’re going to try and push the ball. I learned that after the first couple of weeks of I-35 ball. We have some go-getters. They do a good job of pushing the ball down the court. We’ve got some 3-pointer shooters. Probably going to be shooting a lot of three’s and hopefully draining them.”

Christa Subbert was an all-state basketball player at Stanton High School, an all-American basketbal player at William Penn University and was previously the Clarke varsity volleyball coach and junior varsity girls head basketball coach. She is in year one as the Clarke varsity girls basketball coach.