Trojans' Kaleb Knothe signs to Northwestern College for basketball

Feb. 6—WORTHINGTON — Throughout Kaleb Knothe's high school athletic career, he has often been praised for his work ethic and leadership.

Over the past couple of seasons for Worthington's boys basketball team, a big role has been that of a tone-setter. Among his other skills on the court are solid shooting, passing and rebounding along with strong effort and hustle on defense.

Now Knothe will look to bring those skills to the next level. At the WHS media center on Monday, he signed to play basketball at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, fulfilling a long-time dream of his.

"It means everything," said the 6-foot-1-inch guard. "It's been a goal of mine I've been working towards ever since I started basketball way back in third grade, so I'm just grateful I got to share this opportunity with all my friends and family."

Knothe will join a Red Raiders men's basketball program with a recent run of success. In the past seven seasons, they've won 20-plus games and made the NAIA Tournament six times. In the program's history, Northwestern has won 14 Great Plains Athletic Conference championships and two NAIA titles.

The Red Raiders are in the middle of their 2023-24 campaign and they have a 17-5 overall record and a 10-4 conference record. They are currently ranked 12th in the latest NAIA coaches poll.

They are led at head coach by Kris Korver, who is in his 24th season and is the winningest coach in program history with more than 500 wins.

"I've played basketball there for camps, of course, obviously, and I always liked the facility," Knothe said. "And then I went there on an actual visit and the rest of the campus lived up to the rest of the hype, and it was very nice."

Before going to college, Knothe will finish out his senior basketball season with the Trojans, who are currently 9-8 with the regular season beginning to wind down.

Prior to this season, Knothe has seen quite a bit of success on the basketball court. As a junior last season, he averaged more than 12 points per game and was an all-Big South Conference White Division player. He helped lead the Trojans to a breakout season as they made it to the Section 2AAA championship game.

Last season was something Knothe noted as a highlight of his prep basketball career as he even made a couple of game-winning shots that year.

"I would say definitely last year stuck out to me a lot," he said. "We had a really solid team, and making our run to the sub section finals, it meant a lot. And so it's just the atmosphere this team brings and the high school, and the connection all of us boys have is something that'll be missed once I go. But it's definitely memories I'll cherish."

Knothe also played other sports for WHS. Last year, he ran cross country in the fall and played baseball in the spring. This year, he decided to give soccer a try and he excelled as the Trojans goalkeeper, making many clutch saves on the team's run to state.

But in the end it's basketball that Knothe will continue to pursue in college and he is excited to take his talents to Orange City.

"I'm just ready to bring my game to the next level," he said. "I went to a couple of their games and just the atmosphere of how they play and run things around there (is) just truly amazing. So I'm excited to go there and take the next step."