A new season of Iowa High School basketball starts next Monday with the opening of preseason practice all across the state. At Adel-Desoto-Minburn High School, the Tiger girls basketball team will begin their inaugural organized practices under first-year head coach Jacob Cleveland. Cleveland brings previous high school coaching experience with him to Adel, spending three seasons as the head coach of the Des Moines East Scarlets boys basketball program. During his introductory interview with the Raccoon Valley Radio Network in late September, Cleveland spoke about some of the things he learned during his tenure at East. “I learned that you got to make connections with your athletes from day one,” Cleveland said, “If you can do that, they really buy into the program. I really think you also need to be very honest with your athletes, the community, and the parents and tell them how the program is going to be run so they can really have that buy-in.”

Cleveland coached the Des Moines East boys basketball team from 2014 to 2017, spending last winter as an assistant coach of the Waukee Warriors girls basketball team. Since the ADM Board of Education approved his coaching contract on October 8, Cleveland’s already held multiple open gym session, and last Sunday held his first parent’s meeting. The ADM girls basketball team’s first game of the 2018-19 season is Monday, November 19, hosting the Norwalk Warriors in a nonconference contest. The Raccoon Valley Radio Network will provide live play by play coverage of the Tiger girls and boys varsity basketball games this winter on True Country K 107.9, raccoonvalleyradio.com, and the KKRF mobile app.