Kodiaks men’s basketball sign local highly skilled guard

By Lethbridge Herald on July 6, 2023.

Lethbridge College Kodiaks Photo

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s basketball team  have signed their second recruit this offseason out of Magrath in guard Dray Walburger.

“”To me, [signing with the Kodiaks] means joining a championship program with a tradition of success,” says Walburger in a release. “I see it as a great opportunity and privilege to join the Kodiaks.”

The Kodiaks feel that the 6’3” Walburger can create his own offence and is an aspect that sets him apart from his peers.

“Well, we graduated nine players from last year’s bronze medal ACAC roster,” said men’s basketball head coach Ryan Heggie.

“And each one of those guys that left brought something very important to the program. Some of them were leading us in scoring and you know some of them were tournament all-stars and league all-stars. So bringing Dray in with his ability to create, you know, offence either by himself or we can create it through our offensive sets, he’s been known as a player that can put the ball in the basket. (He) has that natural ability to score and even though our program really hangs our hat on our defensive side of the ball, you need guys that can put the ball in the hoop too. He’s going to be an asset for us in that department.”

Heggie said he’s not just a one-option scorer.

“He can do it in several ways which, you know, makes it harder for the opposition to scout,” said Heggie.

Heggie highlighted that when you lose guys such as Pacen Blackmore, Brady Baines, Taylor Barfuss, Chris Schlauwitz, that there’s close to 40 to 50 points a game lost.

“So bringing a guy like Dray in, he’s going to have an opportunity to help us fill that hole, right,” he said.

“I mean it’s a big jump for anyone of these kids from high school to college and it’s a less (of a)  jump for a person like Dray because he’s not 18, he’s 20. So even though he doesn’t have the experience of college basketball, he’s got some maturity under him because he’s been out in the real world for a couple of years kind of.”

There will be familiarity as the Kodiaks are bringing back Mason Hoffman, Treydon Barton and the other Magrath recruit Cody Tollestrup who played with Walburger in high school.

“So that’s going to help the process along as well,” said Heggie.

Heggie said the real question is how is he on defence.

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” said Heggie.