Prospect Spotlight: Cameron Soenksen (2020)
The Iowa Barnstormers picked themselves up a gem with Camanche 6-foot point guard Cameron Soenksen.
One of the bouncier and more pliable prospects in all of Iowa, Soenksen says his shooting has recently become a strength of his, and discussed his great leaping ability and how it’s impacted his ability to snare boards from the guard spot.
“My shooting ability has gotten a lot better in the past year. My ability to drive to the basket and find open guys is something that I do well,” said Soenksen.
“Early in the season for our Camanche team I didn’t really like getting rebounds, and then later in the season I started getting a lot more rebounds when I realized I could jump higher than people and get those. And ever since I’ve been getting as many boards as I can.”
As a freshman with Camanche, Soenksen averaged 13.9 points per game, and he really put himself on the map at the state tournament in March.
“It was an honor going to The Well (Wells Fargo Arena) and being able to play and start. It’s unbelievable just the feeling you have playing there, especially being able to play with your brother,” said Soenksen.
“What led up to all of that was just hard work; practice, showing up early and staying late getting shots up, drill work on my free time, things like that.”
Now, he’s playing with adidas sponsored Iowa Barnstormers 15U, and he says that experience has helped him tremendously with the understanding of basketball.
“(Playing with the Barnstormers) has been helping me a lot with my understanding of the game. I didn’t really understand the game fully yet; I shot 3s and tried to score as much as I could,” said Soenksen. “They’ve taught me how to play organized basketball, and that’s something that my coaches stress: is being able to calm a team down, get into a set and run it.”
Soenksen mentioned that playing against some of the best competition in the country this past month has helped his skill-set develop exponentially.
“My shooting has gotten a lot better and my ball-handling, playing against Wisconsin United and all those teams has just taught me a lot about staying in control of myself,” he said.
With still several years to go before he may need to make a decision on college ball, Soenksen says his main focus now is continuing to learn and understand the game.
“I’ve been thinking about recruitment. I’ve only gotten one letter from UNI, and it was just a camp invite. My dad works for NCSA and I have an account set up on that and I have a few coaches looking at that profile,” said Soenksen.
“I’m not really focusing on college because I still have a long high school career ahead of me. I’m focusing on getting better and helping my team. I just want to understand the game before I start thinking about college.”