Crim: Camp Point Central graduates receive full community support in head-to-head coaching battle

QUINCY — The women’s basketball game between John Wood Community College and Danville Area Community College on Saturday afternoon could have been billed as “Camp Point Central Day.”

The coaching matchup featured Kyle Bent (Central Class of 2004) for the visiting Jaguars and Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger (Central Class of 2008) for the host Blazers.

Pockets of family, friends and everyday Central fans sat in the bleachers behind each bench along the north side of the JWCC Student Activity Center, rooting for their favorite coach.

The only thing missing, it seemed, was the playing of the Central High School fight song.

“My folks always come, and I have family in Hannibal, but just walking in and out of the gym I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in years,” Bent said. “It was really nice to see the town come out and watch two alums compete for an hour and a half.”

Schwagmeyer-Belger agreed.

“Everyone coming out to see Kyle coach and me coach, it was really cool,” she said. “It doesn’t surprise me, to be honest, because when you come from a small community, the community looks out for each other, and they truly want you to succeed. I found that out in my (playing) career and then moving on to coaching.”

Bent and Danville prevailed, outscoring JWCC 26-13 in the third quarter to break open a two-point game and hold on for a 75-64 victory, its 12^th in 15 games.

This is the soon-to-be 39-year-old Bent’s second stint with the Jaguars, and he’s happy to be back where his coaching career began in the 2010-11 season.

His initial Danville teams won 19 or more games three times in four years, and he was named NJCAA Region 24 Coach of the Year after the 2011-12 season.

That success led him to Martin Methodist College (now University of Tennessee-Southern), where his teams won 95 games and made four NAIA tournament appearances in as many seasons. Bent was the Southern State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after guiding the RedHawks to a school-record 27 wins and their first league championship in 2017-18.

Continuing to move up the ladder, Bent took the head coaching job at Rogers State University, an NCAA Division II school in Claremore, Okla., in 2018. The program was born in 2007 and enjoyed some early success but has finished with a winning record only once since the 2012-13 season.

Playing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, Bent guided the Hillcats to a 14-14 mark his first season but managed just 26 victories in the next four combined.

“You always want to challenge yourself, to take on the next challenge in the coaching profession,” Bent said of his move to Rogers State. “I can have reasons why we struggled there, but it ultimately lands on me. I missed on some kids. I didn’t do a good enough job. We didn’t get any breaks. But that’s just how it goes.

“I just felt like I wasn’t having a big enough impact on my kids at the D2 level.”

So, he jumped at the opportunity to return to Danville last season when the head coaching position became available, guiding the Jaguars to a 16-14 record.

“Getting back to my roots, where I felt like I did the most good, I thought would be beneficial to me,” said Bent, who has won 229 games in 14-plus seasons. “I always felt like I had some of my biggest impact on kids when I was here before, so it’s been rejuvenating to get back.

“It’s not always ‘how high can I climb.’ I really enjoy this group. I enjoy the people I work with. For me right now, that’s good enough.”

While their high school years did not overlap, Bent was a classmate of Schwagmeyer-Belger’s older brother and sister at Central. 

“I’ve always known Ali,” he said.

Schwagmeyer-Belger was the all-time leader scorer for the Central-Southeastern program when she graduated, a mark since broken by Laney Lantz.

She was named All-Midwest Region in each of her two seasons at Quincy University after a stint at Charleston Southern and was named Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year as a junior. She later played professionally in Germany, Spain and Australia before returning home to coach AAU programs.

One of the first phone calls Schwagmeyer-Belger made when she was hired by JWCC in July was to Bent.

“I reached out to Kyle because I knew he had coached in this league before,” she said. “I was hired in July with three players. I asked him for advice on recruiting and stuff like that. He gave me some really good, tangible advice. It’s cool having that relationship from Camp Point.”

“I wanted to be a sounding board because I’ve been through it. I’ve gotten jobs late, and I’ve had only two kids on the roster,” Bent said. “It was nice to hear her enthusiasm and to help her in any way possible.”

Schwagmeyer-Belger remains upbeat even though JWCC has lost two in a row and four of five to fall to 5-9.

The Trail Blazers have been competitive in most games despite battling injuries with a thin roster. They were missing three players Saturday. Blair Eftink scored 29 points and Grace Deters 17, but the five others who played managed just six field goals and 18 points combined.

“I knew it would be an uphill battle, but if it hadn’t been for injuries I think we would be one of the top teams,” she said. “Our conference is one of the top conferences in the nation and we have had a tough schedule.

“The players come and they battle and they fight and they play, and we’re just going to keep progressing. We want to be process driven. It’s not about the end result; it’s about the journey that gets you the end result. If we have that mindset, then we’re going to have the end result we want.”

Bent, for one, believes Schwagmeyer-Belger will be successful.

“As soon as she got this job, I knew that it was going to make it a little more difficult on everybody else in the league,” he said. “She’s got it. She’s cerebral, she works hard and her heart is in the right spot. She’s got to have an opportunity to build her roster.

“I know she’s dealing with lack of numbers and injuries and kind of everything we go through as coaches. Just by her demeanor and how her kids played and reacted, I think she’s doing a great job.

“It’s nice to see somebody else from our small town coaching college hoops. I will root for her in every game except when she plays us.”