Ex-Whitworth player Love named Pirates women’s coach
SPOKANE — After a nationwide search, Whitworth University has promoted former Pirate player Kenny Love to become the school’s next women’s basketball head coach, athletic director Tim Demant has announced.
Love has been an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team since 2017. He has been Damion Jablonski’s top assistant since Jablonski was promoted to head coach ahead of the 2019-20 season.
Love takes control of a Pirate women’s team that finished 10-15 overall and 5-11 in the NWC in 2021-22 under former head coach Joial Griffith, who stepped down in March after four seasons at the helm .
Love was involved in all aspects of operations for the men’s team, including scouting, recruiting, budget management, conditioning, and organizing summer camps.
The Whitworth men have three NCAA Division III tournament appearances and a 102-26 record during Love’s five seasons as an assistant coach.
Love was a three-year All-Northwest Conference first-team winner during his playing career at Whitworth. He was a third-team All-American and the NWC Player of the Year after his second campaign in 2015. The Pirates qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament in each of his four seasons.
Love will immediately make the transition to the role of women.
Bergersen named assistant coach at Boise State after season at EWU
BOISE — Former Boise State men’s basketball player Roberto Bergersen, a 2007 Boise State Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, has joined the Broncos staff as an assistant coach, Broncos coach Leon Rice announced Monday. .
Most recently, Bergersen served as an assistant coach at Eastern Washington for the 2021-22 season, joining his son, Rylan, who was playing his senior season for the Eagles. Bergersen helped the Eagles go 18-16, and EWU earned an invite to The Basketball Classic postseason tournament.
Bergersen returns to his alma mater where he played from 1996 to 1999. During his Bronco career, Bergersen was named the 1999 Big West Conference Player of the Year after averaging 20 points per game and leading Boise State to the 1998-99 Big West Regular Season Championship his senior season. He was named to the All-Big West First Team in 1998 and 1999, and was a national finalist for the 1999 Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award.
The Atlanta Hawks selected Bergersen with the 52nd pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. He spent much of his 11-year career in the Continental Basketball Association/NBA D-League, where he played for the Stampede in Idaho. In 2008, he helped the Stampede win the NBA D-League Championship. His No. 11 jersey was retired by the organization and still hangs from the rafters at Idaho Central Arena in Boise. The Washington native has also spent time playing in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Turkey.
Bergersen is the co-founder of the Hoop Dreams Idaho High School Basketball Club, an AAU program based in Boise. He was with the club from 2007-21, helping to develop nearly 100 boys and girls who became collegiate players, including 26 at the NCAA Division I level.
In 2017-18, Bergersen served as the Men’s Basketball Prep School Head Coach at Kanakuk Link Year Prep in Branson, Missouri. There he led his team to a CPG National Championship and produced 12 scholarship athletes.
One of Bergersen’s three sons, Ryzin, plays basketball at NCAA Division II Northwestern Nazarene University in Nampa.