TWIN BRIDGES — Josh Keller is, undoubtedly, the face of the Twin Bridges basketball program. He is the head coach of both the boys and girls basketball teams, a big and time-consuming undertaking.
“It takes a lot of time and these kids deserve all that time,” Keller said. “(I spend) four hours of practice, basically, at the gym every night.”
He is in his fourth season as the head of the boys squad, and this is the second campaign manning both the boys and the girls. His players have watched him work feverishly over the past couple of seasons.
“He just knows all the positions so well and he helps us to understand the game a lot more,” said girls forward Kailee Oliverson. “He’s such a good coach.”
Coaching two teams means twice the time and twice the effort, but Keller has embraced that challenge. Because of that, his teams are earning twice the hardware.
“He works with us all individually and he’s able to just work together with everyone,” said boys forward Daniel Kruer. “He’s able to put his heart into these teams and into winning all of these games.”
Last Saturday, Keller led his girls to a district championship in a win over the Ennis Mustangs. Two hours later, his boys were hoisting a first-place plaque after defeating Drummond.
But there are many steps to Class C’s holy grail. Keller already had his mind set on the divisional tournament beginning in Hamilton on Thursday, but he has instilled the thought of runs in their respective state tournaments in the minds of his players.
“(Keller) told us we could go to state,” Kruer said. “Each team is going to head to state and we believe that, so we’re going to keep fighting hard until we get there.”
