Kansas City Kansas Community College Athletics will induct the 2019 national champion women’s basketball team along with their coach, Joe McKinstry into the KCKCC Athletic Hall of Fame Nov. 9.
Induction ceremonies will be held at about 6 p.m. between the KCKCC women's and men's basketball games of the annual KCKCC tournament at Metropolitan Community College – Penn Valley. In addition, the inductees and their families, guests and friends will be honored at a luncheon earlier in the day.
McKinstry led KCKCC to two NJCAA DII Women’s Basketball National Championship titles – the first in 2016, and the second in 2019. During his tenure, KCKCC also made three national tournament appearances. He first came to KCKCC in August 2014 as the assistant men’s basketball coach for then Head Coach Kelley Newton and the Blue Devil men’s basketball program. He helped guide the team to a 23-9 record, a Jayhawk Conference Division II regular season championship and a berth in the NJCAA Division II Region VI Championship game during the 2014-15 season. In his six years at KCKCC, he had an impressive overall record of 151-42. During McKinstry’s first season as head coach for the women’s basketball team in 2016, he guided the Lady Blue Devils to KCKCC’s first national championship in school history, becoming the first ever college basketball coach in the state of Kansas (men or women) to win a national championship in the first season as a head coach. He was also a two-time NJCAA DII District B Coach of the Year in the two years he won the national title.
The 2018-19 women’s basketball team ended its season with an overall record of 32-4. They averaged an astounding 89.1 points per game and held their opponents to just 63.3. The 2019 champions ran rampant through the national tournament in Harrison, Ark., building leads of 20 or more points in each of their four wins. The Blue Devils had seven players who started 10 or more games, and that didn’t include the NJCAA Player of the Year, Nija Collier, who made just five starts or redshirt freshman Caroline Hoppock, who played in all 36 games and averaged 7.3 points.
Collier led a front line of four players in double figures. Averaging 17.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks, she shot 58.5 percent from the field and .400 from behind the three-point arc. The Magnolia, Ark., duo of 6-1 Lillie Moore and 5-9 Kisi Young dominated inside, with Young averaging 8.7 rebounds and Moore 8.1. Moore also averaged 14.7 points and shot 53.0 percent from the field. Young averaged 10.6 points and had a record .639 shooting percentage. Freshman Lenaejha Evans was third in scoring, averaging 11.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists. Perimeter scoring came from the trio of sophomore Camryn Swanson and freshmen Brodi Byrd and Hoppock. Swanson knocked down a college single-season record with 87 made 3-pointers with Byrd adding 76 and Hoppock recording 59. It’s a year that will never be forgotten. Sweeping Johnson County in all three matchups and winning the National Title with a score of 84-59.