The new head coach of the North Platte Community College men’s basketball team is a familiar face in North Platte sports.

Jacob Brandl was announced as the seventh head coach in the program’s history on Thursday at the McDonald-Belton Gymnasium. He takes over for NJCAA Hall of Fame coach Kevin O’Connor, who coached the team for 39 years.

Brandl was the head coach of McCook Community College the last four years. He also played for NPCC from 2006-08 and now, he will lead the program he once suited up for.

“It’s a very cool, surreal moment to come back to where it all started,” Brandl said. “It’s an honor to be here. I’m excited to get back here and get to work.”

It was pride in his alma-mater that made Brandl leave McCook and head 68 miles up U.S. Highway 83 to coach NPCC, the sister school in the Mid-Plains system and McCook arch-rival.

“Bittersweet is the right word,” Brandl said. “(McCook athletic director) Coach (Jon) Olsen and (vice president) Kelly Rippen gave me my first shot and I told them this was the only job I’d leave McCook for.”

In his playing career, Brandl helped the Knights to a combined 42-19 record over two years. In his freshman year of 2007, NPCC made it to the semifinals of the Region IX tournament.

“I’m partly responsible for a couple of those conference championships,” Brandl said, remarking at the banner at the McDonald-Belton Gymnasium that lists the years the Knights won the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference championship.

Brandl said the perspective of his playing career has helped guide him as a coach.

“That’s one of those things where I’m not old, but I’m not young either,” he said. “But I was a player and I remember what it was like to play here and the lessons from Coach O’Connor — the discipline, being a student-athlete and playing for something bigger than yourself. We’re going to look toward the past but move toward the future.”

Brandl said his teams will play a similar style of that of his former coach. They will attempt to strike the fine balance between being aggressive and intelligent.

“We’re going to get up and down the court and play fast,” he said. “We’re going to compete. But we’re going to play a disciplined brand of basketball.”

McCook went 47-72 during Brandl’s four years. The Indians were inconsistent yet seemed to play their best at the end of the season. They defeated NPCC in the Region IX tournament in each of Brandl’s first two years.

This year, the Indians went 11-21 but they lost 7’0″ Baylor signee Noah Boyed to a season-ending injury in December.

Brandl said things like that are tough but it comes with the territory.

“It’s never easy and there are a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “Different challenges come up. There are a lot of challenges and responsibilities with being a coach.”

Brandl is not only returning to the school where he played, but also his hometown. He graduated from St. Pat’s High School, where he quarterbacked the Irish to the Class C2 state championship in 2004. Also in his junior year, he helped the Irish basketball team reach the semifinals of the state basketball tournament.

“It’s kind of cool,” Brandl said. “I haven’t been to a St. Pat’s game in a while. They’ve played around McCook but the schedules haven’t worked out.”

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