Recruiting Report: Cole Sienknecht (2018)
Six-foot guard Cole Sienknecht from Manitou Springs is the lone player from last year’s rotation from a senior dominated club and he’s made his college choice.
“During the offseason I played with The Force 17U, we were apart of a great circuit with NY2LA and played some great talent,” Cole told Prep Hoops. “That helped my overall game going against such good competition.
“Along with that, I’ve been training with Bryse Velasquez. My junior year went well, we made it all the way to the great eight, but I think my play needs to be amped up for my senior season.”
Sienknecht has to take on a bigger scoring role with his team next winter so that was part of his focus going into his senior year.
“I wanted to improve my scoring ability, and handling the ball with a lot of pressure for my senior season since last year my role was mainly a true point guard,” Cole explained.
“This next year a lot of pressure is going to be put on me to be able to put the ball in the bucket.”
Cole has been a double figure scorer for a pair of seasons now and he will definitely have to give Manitou Springs big numbers this winter.
“Last year, our team graduated eight seniors, I was the only non-senior who saw a substantial amount of playing time,” said Sienknecht. “So this year we are going to have a completely different team with few kids who had varsity time, we are going to have to grow up and improve quickly.”
Cole will have a lot of new teammates around him but his focus is still on winning games.
“My individual goal is to just be a great leader to my teammates and leave a strong impact on Manitou basketball that lasts awhile,” Sienknecht said.
“But, I want to make it as far as possible in playoffs, winning the championship would be really nice. I always want to set the bar high.”
Cole doesn’t have to worry about playing in front of and impressing college coaches because he is already made his college choice.
“I have actually committed to play basketball at Western State Colorado University. I will be signing in the early signing period and look forward to playing in the RMAC.”