DODGE CITY — Humboldt native Brad Witherspoon breathes basketball.
The first-year Dodge City Community College head coach has experienced quite the string of basketball playing and coaching stops throughout his life. Witherspoon grew up and played on the Humboldt High basketball team, a team which reached state for the first time in 20 years before he graduated in 2004.
“I remember the basketball courts in town,” said Witherspoon. “Those courts would be packed everyday with high school guys. We grew up on those courts at the elementary school. They had chain nets and then we’d go drink water out of random people’s hoses.”
Witherspoon also played football and even started at receiver one year for Humboldt, leading the Tri-Valley League in yards and receptions.
Growing up in Humboldt is one thing he wouldn’t change for the world.
“I was an 18-year old cocky kid from Humboldt who was the best player on my team for a long time, so when I went to Kansas I was humbled pretty quick,” Witherspoon said. “I got to play with a lot of really good players. At that time, I knew I wanted to coach, so being around Bill Self and those guys, I just really tried to soak it all in.”
Witherspoon walked on at Kansas and lettered for two years while mainly being known for his excellence in the classroom. While at Kansas, Witherspoon was named a Jayhawk Scholar athlete and was on the Big 12 Commissioner Academic Honor Roll.
“The attention to detail and the small things matter,” Witherspoon said of Self’s coaching. “It’s not necessarily always X’s and O’s or having good players, but having guys buy into a program is one thing he’s really good at.”
In his first year at Dodge City, Witherspoon has led the Conquistadors to a 23-8 record and an 18-6 mark in conference play. He has also helped lift Dodge City to a KJCCC Division I regular season championship title.
Sixth-ranked Dodge City took on Butler in the Region VI semifinals at Friends University in Wichita on Friday
“Growing up I always wanted to coach in this league,” said Witherspoon. “I grew up watching every Allen County home game, I’d go back when they were playing in Division I. My mom taught at Allen County for a long time and I went to a lot of Mike Hayes basketball camps.”
“It means a lot to be back in my home state and be in a good spot,” Witherspoon added.
The former Jayhawk walk-on made six coaching stops before taking the head coaching role in Dodge City last May. He was most recently head coach at Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa College where the Mavericks won the OCAC conference and secured 20 victories.
One of Witherspoon’s former players at Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, Federiko Federiko, is starting on the University of Pittsburgh’s basketball team.
Prior to that, Witherspoon was an assistant coach at Barton College in Great Bend for four years where in the top two in the conference every year. He also helped coach one of those teams to the NJCAA national championship.
