By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Luke Scheidecker has officially been introduced as the 11th head coach in program history for the Missouri Western State University women's basketball team.
Scheidecker says the opportunity to come to St. Joseph and play in one of the best conferences in division two basketball made taking the job a no brainer
"There's certain jobs where the resources aren't there to maybe compete for national championships, that's not the case here," Scheidecker tells reporters. "The resources are here, available, there's potential to win big and win at a high rate and graduate our student athletes and move them on."
Scheidecker brings a winning way to Western. During his time at Wabash Valley College, he amassed 231 career wins and lost just 22 games total.
Scheidecker says as a coach, he's very demanding of his players
"It's not demeaning, but it's like hey we have certain expectations," Scheidecker explains. "If we're going to play the pace and style we want to play, you can't take possessions off, it has to be 40 minutes of straight, controlled chaos as I would say."
Scheidecker says fans that come and see his team play will see a fun and fast play style for 40 minutes
"We're going to get players who can play, that's what we're going to do," Scheidecker emphasizes. "Recruiting is what I love to do, it's my passion, so we're going to get players that fit the system, fit the community, fit the school, but it's going to be fast paced, it's going to be in your face for 40 minutes pressure defense, flying around, trying to score in the first seven seconds, that is the style we're going to bring."
Scheidecker may come from the junior college ranks, but he knows the challenges of his new conference. His wife Tori, previously served as a graduate assistant under former Western head coach Candi Whitaker.
Scheidecker says knowing how challenging the MIAA conference can be, his goal is just for his team to be different than the rest of the league
"We want to be different," Scheidecker says. "And I think that's one of our things recruiting is getting the right people who fit our system and our style that play that different way."
Scheidecker inherits a women's program that has made the NCAA tournament three times in the last four years. He replaces Ashton Feldhaus following her resignation.
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