Swallow named to all-conference first team

Article courtesy of Tom Casey, Lakota Country Times

posted on March 19, 2012

MCCOOK, Neb. – Red Cloud graduate Carl Swallow, a freshman at McCook Community College, earned first team all-conference honors this year with the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.

“For the season, we finished 15-15, then lost our first round regional game. Over the year, we lost as many as five players who had started for us, so it was a tough season. Carl had to play both our two-guard and point guard positions at different times. He did a good job for us,” said McCook Community College head coach Brandon Lenhart, “Carl played in all 31 of our games and started over 90% of the games for us. He averaged 12 points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal per game. He's still a young basketball player; he's still learning and has a good work ethic.”

Swallow earned first team all-state honors as a senior at Red Cloud. After graduating in May of 2010, he enrolled at Chadron State College. He redshirted the first year to help him through the transition from high school to college, both academically and on the court. During the summer of 2011, Swallow, with the advice of both his college coach and his high school coach, enrolled at McCook to both play basketball for a year, and work on his academics.

“We're really looking forward to Carl returning next year to help anchor our team,” said Lenhart, “if he continues to work hard [and] keeps learning the game, he'll have a chance to move on to either a NCAA Division I or II four-year college after next year.”

“The challenge for any high school coach is to match your player up with a college environment that will be a good fit, so that the young student-athlete will have a chance to make the transition to college, adapt to the college game and to the classroom, [and] to succeed and reach his or her potential,” said Matt Rama who has sent high school graduates on to South Dakota State University, Bismarck State College, Dickinson State University, Chadron State College, Presentation College, Northern State University, McCook Community College, Central Community College and Haskell Indian Nations University. “Carl had a good year at McCook…He had a chance to play ball, fulfilled the necessary classes, and has the opportunity to build on it next year as he looks to a four-year school. We're all excited for him.”