Kegler’s work ethic and love of basketball take him to national Hoop Shoot competition

The best free throw shooter in the region under the age of 13 was dribbling around the Marmaton Valley High School gymnasium on a late Wednesday afternoon with his little brother.

The blue of Dierks Kegler’s Steph Curry T-shirt has faded, most likely from extensive wear. The Golden State point guard is Kegler’s favorite NBA player and his lethal shooting ability is something the fourth-grader aspires to.

He’s certainly off to a good start. Earlier this month Kegler was named the Regional Elks Hoop Shoot champion for the West Central region including Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.

On March 17, Kegler and his family traveled to Denver where Dierks participated in the free throw competition.

Not only were his 22 out of 25 shots good enough to win his division and qualify him for the national meet, the percentage also topped marks set by the boys in the two older age groups.

“It was fun,” Kegler said. “I wasn’t nervous. I’d been working for this all year long.”

And Kegler definitely put in the work. Almost every day of the week he and his family — mom Terra, dad Jason, older sister Raveyn, 12, and younger brother Kyron, 7 — head to the gym and help Dierks meet his quota of 100 free throws a day.

And his parents don’t have to drag it out of him either. In fact, oftentimes he’s all too eager to make his way to the gym and start getting shots up.

“It’s never hard to get him to come to the gym,” his dad said. “He wants to go practice. The day after he won regionals, that Sunday, we drove all day back from Denver and we jokingly asked if he wanted to go to the gym and he was all about it. We had to tell him no, not today.”

And he can string them together, too. His highest mark so far is 52 consecutively executed free throws. And the nine-year-old sharpshooter is really just getting started

“Ever since he was little he’s always had a shot,” Jason Kegler said. “And we haven’t messed with it much. We’ve tweaked it but there’s some natural ability and desire that makes it easier for us.”

BASKETBALL is in Dierks’ blood.

Terra played at Allen County and currently coaches at Marmaton Valley and Jason played at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth and coached for a time at Allen County.

Coming off the regional success, Dierks and his family will head to Chicago for the national finals on April

21.

Kegler will face off against 11 other regional champions for a shot at history.