CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Kenton Alston has been involved in basketball for his entire life. He grew up in the Steelton area, playing for Steelton High School and getting a scholarship to play basketball in college at Bloomsburg University. But, he never ended up playing there.
“My older brother at the time was serving in the army so he was a mentor of mine,” Alston said. “That was my inspiration going into the military. I wanted to do the toughest and hardest training so the Marine Corps was my choice.”
Alston was eventually deployed to Iraq but his passion for basketball never wavered. In fact, the deployment made his love for the game even stronger.
“It just made me appreciate things so much more with the game so when I got to college… I was grateful for the opportunity to play,” he said.
At 24-years-old, Alston started a college basketball career at Penn State-Harrisburg. He said his time in the military helped his maturity, and he took that growth to the court with him.
“It just helped me so much as a leader now because I’ve seen different sides of it,” Alston said. “You know, things don’t always go the right way… adversity and being able to go through those experiences will better help me lead and teach.”
Now, Alston is beginning a brand new experience. He was recently named the head men’s basketball coach at Central Penn College, a team that went just 6-17 this past season. His players say they are already a fan of their new leader.
“He’s a leader amongst men and that’s the kind of person that I really wanna follow and some of my teammates really wanna follow,” said team captain Khalil Dukes. “So we have that leader that you know hold us accountable and you’re gonna have the structure we’ll follow him and we can always win.”
Being the head coach of a college basketball team means much more than just knowing the X’s and O’s, you need to be a leader of young men, and Central Penn believes they have the right man for the job.
“Some teammates and even myself don’t grow up with a father figure in the house, so having a coach that’s really reliable and we can trust no matter what it is, we could talk to just you know personal level outside of basketball that means everything,” said Dukes.
“These guys know that I care about them and that is bigger than basketball. That’s my big saying is that it’s more than a game,” said Alston. “I want these guys to get degrees, I want them to know that they could come to me anytime I want them to be at my house as much as possible like it’s a big it’s always bigger than the game.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
