Aug. 15, 2006

By Ken Hambelton, Lincoln Journal Star

This was not supposed to be the team or the year for Hastings College women's basketball. A third NAIA basketball national championship in the last five years seemed far-fetched.

This was a team that often had four or five freshmen on the court at the same time. The Broncos were far from an offensive scoring machine, like the teams that won national titles in 2002 and 2003.

Hastings College (Neb.) started the season 3-3, then lost to archrival Doane College (Neb.) and Great Plains Athletic Conference rival Northwestern College (Iowa) down the stretch.

But the Broncos gave up an average of just more than 44 points a game in the NAIA national tournament.

"Honestly, if you saw us early, you'd agree with me that this was not a likely national champion or even conference championship team," said Hastings College coach Tony Hobson, who is honored today as the 2006 Journal Star State College Coach of the Year. He won the award in 2002, but might have done more to earn it this time around.

Hobson coached in Kansas -- at Cloud County Community College, Belleville and Barton County CC -- before moving to Hastings. He played for Hastings College and eventually earned his master's degree from the United States Sports Academy.

He has a 177-32 record at Hastings and a 354-90 record overall.

But he may have never had a bigger challenge than this season's Bronco team.

Seniors Lynnze Martinsen (5-foot-8) of St. Paul and Katie Dent (5-9) of Mullen, two juniors, no sophomores and 11 freshmen filled the roster.

"Martinsen and Dent played such huge roles for us and gave us such great mental leadership and helped this team along," Hobson said. "The freshmen did come along and the errors diminished."

There were practices when Hobson went hoarse running the same drills over and over. He issued the message that if they did not improve on fundamentals, they would not win. He added that defense would be the key to the success of the team.

Unlike the 2002 and 2003 teams that boasted player of the year Elizabeth Herbek and standout Carrie Hofstetter, the Broncos this season counted on Martinsen and junior Stacy Svoboda to carry the scoring load, Dent to play any one of five positions and to almost always defend the opponent's best player, and for freshmen Kay Broekemeier, Ali Clouse, Maggie Schmaderer and Rachel VanKirk to take care of the rest.

"Because we had good enough defense inside, we didn't have to help out or double-team anybody and that made it easier to play defense on the perimeter," Hobson said. "We were never all that good on offense, but our defense carried us through the nights we didn't play good offense.

"It was a season where I was probably more satisfied with the outcome than any other team and I probably had more headaches than I did with any other team," he said.

Hastings has one "advantage" in that the Broncos play in the powerful Great Plains Athletic Conference. The GPAC has  produced the last six NAIA champions and four more semifinalists.

"We're proud of the fact we have stayed in the top three in the conference while Dakota Wesleyan and Concordia changed places at the top with Northwestern, Morningside and Doane. Hastings is the only team to stay with that group.

"We've had players. That sure helps. We're able to recruit to a great tradition to a beautiful facility and to a crowd of satisfied customers to give us an average of more than 1,700 a game," Hobson said. "We have a big, energetic and vocal crowd for home games and I've reached the point here in Hastings where almost everywhere I go, somebody -- men, women, kids -- say they enjoyed watching our teams play.

"That's the perfect compliment."