Kristin Sabers to play basketball for Wesleyan

Kristin Sabers has verbally committed to play basketball at Dakota Wesleyan University.

DWU women’s head basketball coach Jason Christensen received a call from Sabers Monday evening. The upcoming senior at Mitchell High School, who helped the girls’ basketball team to a state championship last year, will join the Tigers in the fall of 2013.

“I didn’t want to be done with basketball after my senior year of high school,” said Sabers, who plans on signing her letter of intent within the next couple of weeks.

Christensen said Sabers was recruited to DWU to play basketball and join the golf team, but her focus will be on the court when she starts college. Sabers took third place in the Class AA state high school golf meet in the spring. She was named to the all-tournament team and has placed in the top 10 at the state meet each of the past two years.

“She wants to concentrate on basketball is what she told me,” Christensen said.

One of the enticing factors in going to DWU was the possibility to play two sports collegiately, Sabers said. She added golfing as a Tiger may be in her future, but she wants to see how the first year of college goes. She added playing in front of the home fans and having friends on the DWU basketball team helped finalize her decision.

Sabers, a forward, is the second player who will join the Tigers starting the 2013-14 season. Parkston’s Erica Herrold signed a letter of intent to play for the Tigers.

“They know our conference is a tough conference, and they’re willing to step in and help us get to the national tournament,” Christensen said. “They want to help us build a tradition and continue making the national tournament.”

Sabers, who first saw playing time as a freshman in high school, averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last year as a junior. She was named to the all-Eastern South Dakota Conference honorable mention list.

Christensen said Herrold and Sabers were among the top five players he recruited to join the 2013-14 season.

“We’ve got two of five kids we wanted and we’re waiting on one,” he said. “We’re excited to have gotten two kids to have signed that early.”

Sabers is the third member of last year’s state champion Mitchell girls’ basketball team to have verbally commit to a college basketball team. Upcoming senior Kerri Young and junior Macy Miller each have verbally committed to play for South Dakota State University.

Young will join the Jackrabbits in the fall of 2013 and Miller will start in the fall of 2014.

Mitchell High School girls’ basketball coach said the group of players on next year’s roster will be a special team.

“We just have to put the pieces of the puzzle back together from last year and this could be one of the major double-A teams to ever come through the state,” said Morgan, whose team went 24-1 last year and defeated Sioux Falls Washington in the Class AA state championship.

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