Keira McCormick commits basketball abilities to Simpson College ...

Waukon girls basketball senior Keira McCormick signed a letter of commitment to play basketball for Simpson College in Indianola at a Thursday morning, March 13 signing event in the Waukon High School gym. Pictured above at that signing event are, left to right seated in the front row, Keith, Keira and Amy McCormick, and in the back are Keira’s siblings, Kennedy and Kole McCormick.

“It just felt like family to me; the school setting, the coaches, the team atmosphere, and then I got my basketball offer from them,” McCormick said of making her decision to attend Simpson College and play basketball for the Lady Storm.

Simpson played to a 15-11 season record this recently completed women’s basketball season, including an 11-5 mark that placed them third in the final American Rivers Conference standings. With no player on this season’s Lady Storm roster standing taller than 6’0”, McCormick’s 6’3” frame will be a newfound addition to their line-up, complementing an overall squad effort that averaged more than nine three-point field goals made per game, which ranked among the top five in all of NCAA Division III. Simpson also had five seniors listed on this season’s roster, with their graduation taking away the Lady Storms’ two leading scorers, both averaging more than 14 points per game from their guard positions.

“Coaches thought I might have an opportunity to start early on; they lose a lot to graduation,” McCormick explained. “They’ve been pretty strong inside but they also place a lot of emphasis on shooting three-pointers.”

McCormick became just the fifth Waukon girls basketball five-on-five player to reach the 1,000-point scoring milestone for her varsity basketball career, doing so late in this past season to finish up as the fifth-leading scorer in five-on-five program history. She also rebounded her way to the second-most career boards in the history of the five-on-five style of play for Waukon girls basketball.

McCormick said she will be pursuing a double-major in Pre-Nursing and Health & Exercise Science at Simpson. She said that teams from University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Luther College and Central College also expressed interest in recruiting her for their basketball programs.