MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College has announced the signing of eight more players for the program’s 2009-10 men’s basketball recruiting class.
Five incoming freshmen and three transfers have joined the program to help the Tigers reload after advancing to the NAIA Division II National Tournament last season. The eight players join previous signee Brett Azinger (Donnellson, Iowa) of Central Lee High School in Donnellson as the first to sign with the Tigers for the 2009-10 season.
Among the freshmen joining the team will be Joshua Beaird (Keokuk, Iowa) and Buck Newcomb (Letts, Iowa), who both join Azinger as local products from the Southeast Iowa area. Beaird is a 6-0 guard who played at Keokuk High School and averaged 12 points and three assists per game for the Chiefs while being named Second Team All-Southeast Conference as a senior.
Newcomb, a 6-2 swingman, comes from Louisa-Muscatine High School and averaged 14.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49.4% from the field as a senior. He was twice named First Team All-Southeast Iowa Super Conference and also was a football and track standout in high school.
Three more freshmen guards joining the program include Jamal Blackwood (Aurora, Ill.), Austin Burns (Belvidere, Ill.) and Daniel Missey (Pacific, Mo.). Blackwood, a 6-1 guard, averaged 10 points, three assists and three steals per game at West Aurora High School and was named all-area honorable mention. Burns, a 5-10 guard from Belvidere High School near Rockford, Ill., was named his team’s defensive player of the year as a senior, while Missey received the same honor this year at Pacific High School, where the 6-0 shooting guard averaged 10.3 points and nearly two assists per game this past year.
Transfers joining the team include Reggie Shipp (Aurora, Ill.), Kelvin Adams (Madrid, Iowa) and Gary Rademaker (Emden, Ill.). Shipp comes down to Wesleyan from Midwest Collegiate Conference rival St. Ambrose University, where he started 53 games over his first two seasons and scored nearly 600 points. Shipp averaged 9.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game as a sophomore, and the 6-2 guard scored 18 points for the Bees’ in SAU’s 83-81 overtime win over IWC on Jan. 7 this past season.
Adams is a 6-5 senior frontcourt player from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City. This past year as a junior he played in 24 games for the Chargers, averaging 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in just over 10 minutes per game for a BCU team that, like Iowa Wesleyan, also qualified for the NAIA Division II national tourney. A native of Madrid, Iowa, he also hails from the same hometown of IWC Head Coach Alan Magnani.
Rademaker is a 6-0 guard coming in from Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Ill., where he averaged 5.6 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game as a sophomore. He played his high school basketball at Hartsburg Emden High School and follows the same path to IWC as former Tiger Jason Garber, who also is from Emden and played at Carl Sandburg before becoming the Tigers’ starting point guard the past two years and an honorable mention All-MCC selection as a senior.
Iowa Wesleyan finished with a 20-11 record last season and is the defending MCC Tournament champions. The Tigers are scheduled to begin their 2009-10 season Oct. 30 at the Grace University Classic in Omaha, Neb.
For more information regarding the IWC basketball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail).
