Basketball banquet salute

The Columbia High School basketball banquet was held Tuesday night at A Taste of Styles in the 200 block of Locust Street.


It was a chance for coaches Mark Wisler and Gary Sutton to close the books on their 2009-10 seasons and an opportunity to recognize the seniors Brandon Arnold, Nate Wall, Emily Nobile, Jordan White and Cami Kronenwetter and for them to speak about their high school careers.

Millersville men’s coach Fred Thompson was the speaker and CHS Athletic Director Jim Rhoads served as master of ceremonies.

The banquet also marked the end of an era in the rich history of Columbia basketball.

It was the final banquet for Karl Kreiser, who is retiring after more than two decades in the Columbia program as a coach. He’s spent the last eight years as head junior high coaching.

Kreiser, a 1975 graduate of Columbia High School, also served a decade as varsity girls’ coach and four years as boys’ coach, following in the footsteps of his father, Elmer, who coached the Tide from 1952-1963.

His girls’ teams did very well, reaching the pinnacle of high school basketball, the state finals in 1986, where they fell to a hot shooting Linesville teams. His 1994 boys’ team was beaten in the Eastern finals by Carbondale.

He’s one of three Columbia basketball coaches to win 200 games on the hill – his father was one and Rick Bentley was another.

Tuesday night, Wisler and Sutton, who was the boys’ coach on the hill when Karl was the girls’ coach spoke highly of the departing coach.

“It was a great decision for me to have him as the junior high coach,” Wisler, who was Kreiser’s point guard on that 1994 team, said. “Thank you for all you have done for me.”

“He’s been a great asset to Columbia,” Sutton said.

“He (Kreiser) is an outstanding example of what Columbia basketball is all about,” Sutton said.

Kreiser when speaking about the junior high team , said he enjoyed his final year of coaching. He had basically a team of eighth grade players playing freshman.

“Like my dad, I have always been proud to say Kreiser from Columbia,” he said.

Rhoads also thanked Kreiser for his dedication to Columbia.

“He’s always been one of the guys I could go to,” the athletic director said.

When you think of basketball in Columbia, one of the names I’ve always been asked about during my career in journalism is Kreiser. I’ve know Karl all his life and I can remember growing up as kids, me on Barber Street and him a block up on Grinnell Avenue, basketball was a very important of his life.

His dad was without a doubt well ahead of his times when he coached and Karl applied that knowledge during his playing career under Tom Hollingsworth and George Hanna.

When he became a coach, you knew he would be successful.

I can still remember the year before the girls lost in the state finals, during the first of what would become the annual Friday treks to the state finals, sitting in the old, well it wasn’t that old back in 1985, telling me his girls would be playing here next year. They were and were set up for a nice run of more trips to the state finals, but injuries and other teams getting better, derailed that.

He took over the Tide boys some 30 years after his dad coached and continued the success of the program, narrowly missing another trip to the state finals, but ending a drought of the lack of district titles up on the hill.

He gout out of coaching for a few years when his sons, Matt and Will were young, but the itch to coach was there and he was back in the game he loves coaching in the CBAA program and then up to the junior high, where he battled some health issues.

There are now big shoes to fill because the junior high level is very important as a training ground for the varsity.

Karl will still be a fixture with the “rest of the coaching” crew in the northeast corner of the gym named for his dad and still barking out helpful hints for those on the floor and on the bench.

It will just be a little different next year not hearing his “voice” from the coaching box.