Football Season is winding down just as the orange ball season is heating up. I know we have some holidays in the mix, but it’s the combination of Football and Basketball that makes this as they sing, “The most wonderful time of the year”.
Our SGI team is expanding (we are still 100% volunteer) and we needed to enlist more help with knowledgeable basketball minds to cover Women’s and Men’s Iowa High School and College more deeply.
So, we are announcing our new Weekly Podcast and Column that is 100% focused on basketball in the state that will start next week.
Between the Baseline and Basket – SGI Basketball Coverage
So, it is fun to announce that we went out and got some real Iowa Basketball veterans to help us produce our weekly podcast and column as we cover Iowa High School Basketball and NAIA, DIII, DII teams in the state.
We went out and got the best talent available – Dr. Chris Bowser. No not the Mario Cart guy we went out and got the original. We think he is the next best doctor of Iowa basketball this side of Dr. Tom Davis that is available.
Chris Bowser’s background is the tale of a Basketball Dude who loves the game. He has been immersed in Iowa basketball for his whole life and is an Iowa guy.
Chris was introduced to the game at Waterloo Columbus High School, where his uncle Virg Erickson, the longtime varsity coach, ran practices that became his unofficial classroom.
Those early days connected him to stories that now read like Iowa basketball lore: Chris Klieman—future national championship football coach—played for his uncle, and Rob “Coach Ski” Miecznikowski, now the St. Ambrose swimming coach for his daughter, was also on those teams.
In writing this story on Chris, he shared that he had a “wildly mediocre but incredibly fun” playing career at North Scott High School, where he recognized early that his future wasn’t as a college athlete, but around the game.
That led him to a student manager position under legendary head coach Eldon Miller at the University of Northern Iowa, where he worked alongside assistants Kevin Lehman, Kevin Boyle, Sam Skarich, and grad assistants Ben Miller and Raoul Costero. (Bowser is a huge UNI Panther fan, so we will bring in some Drake and UNI Coverage for the BB season in addition to the other 20 Iowa College and Iowa High School teams we cover).
P.S. Chris was helping UNI basketball when one of our SGI family members played for the Purple guys, so we have known Chris a long time, and he coached some of our SGI family also in the AAU season.
That time in college basketball was the pre–Director of Operations era, and Chris learned every angle of running a college basketball program—practice setup, film exchange, logistics, travel planning, operations, and summer camps. The UNI’s summer program exposed him to coaches who would later have national success, including Greg McDermott, Nick Nurse, Nate Bjorkgren, Steve Phyfe, and John Henry.
Bowser’s coaching and Basketball operations career continued with roles as:
• Graduate Assistant Coach, Rockford University (Mike Duenser)
• Evaluator, Van Coleman’s Future Stars – This back in the day, was a top CBB publication
• Assistant Coach, Marycrest International University (Denis Schaefer)
• Athletics Facilities Staff, Missouri State University during Steve Alford’s Sweet 16 run and Jackie Stiles’ Final Four days
All this time Chris was working at Rockford University, Missouri State, Kirkwood and Indian Hills in Iowa in roles like the Dean of Admissions and working on his doctorate.
As a basketball nut who can’t just quit the game, he stayed deeply connected to the game:
Chris created Iowa Magic AAU teams with Marty Dello (many Iowa Magic alums played at Iowa Colleges). He did play-by-play for Upper Iowa University. Plus, Chris worked at Kirkwood and Indian Hills, two of the nation’s most respected JUCO programs for many years.
Dr. Bowser now works at Ozarks Technical Community College in Missouri—a school without athletics—and is enjoying the rare freedom of simply being a fan. We convinced him to help out our coverage at SGI.
A huge shout out and thank you to his wife Jamie, for letting us hang out with the Bowser on Zoom and talk ball once a week…we promise to return him intact…
If you have met Bowser – You know he loves the sport, has an insider background, and deep Iowa roots that will make him a thoughtful, entertaining voice on the game.
We are excited to have him on the team and talk about the great Iowans who are playing on teams this season with the orange ball.
We will have a mix of coach and player interviews, recaps on all the NAIA, DIII, DII womens and mens teams progress this season with Iowa High School coverage mixed in on our Podcast.
So, we hope you will join us. It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
We appreciate your comments and support greatly,
