Des Moines Area Community College has announced that Steve Krafcisin will retire from his position as Boone Campus Women's Basketball Coach at the conclusion of this, the 2021-22, season.
Krafcisin has had a varied coaching career which has included two stints, 1987-94, and 1996-97, as an assistant coach of the men's basketball program at Iowa State University.
Steve began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Loras College in Dubuque from 1984-87. From 1994-96, he was an assistant at North Dakota and in 1997, he began an eight-year stint as the men's basketball coach at North Iowa Community College in Mason City.
When his NIACC duties concluded in 2005, he came to Boone to start his long run as the women's basketball coach at Boone Campus.
Its been a highly successful venture with a 334-162 record heading into this final season. Thirteen of his 17 teams have won 19 or more games in a season, including a highlight mark of 27-5 in 2016-17.
Nine of his teams have finished third or higher in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference, including five second-place finishes. Eleven of his teams reached the semifinals of the National Junior College Athletic Association Region XI women's basketball tournament. Four of those teams gained entrance into the championship game of that Region XI tournament.
Five of Steve's players have become All Americans while 71 have been All-Region selections. Some 48 of his athletes have moved on from DMACC to further collegiate competition, ten of them in Division 1 programs.
Another thing to be proud of is the fact that eight of his teams have, collectively, earned a GPA of over 3.0. So, Steve's story has been one of team and individual athletic success, academic success and a steady and influential guidance to hundreds of young athletes.
Steve's wife, Joanne, has been a longtime elementary teacher in Boone and their three children, Jacob, Gabriel and Gracie, are proud Boone High School and DMACC graduates.
EDITORS NOTE: There's something about Steve's playing career that has always boggled this old reporter's mind. Unless there has been a change in the last few years, Steve Krafcisin holds a very unique NCAA bit of trivia. He is the only NCAA Final Four participant who has played in the near finals of that prestigious event for TWO different teams........the University of North Carolina in 1977 and the State University of Iowa in 1980. A Chicago native, he was the top rebounder and third leading scorer for that 1980 Hawkeye team with 6.4 rebounds and 12.3 points per game.
What a tremendous all-around career......athlete, coach and mentor. He has to be proud, individually, and Boone Campus has to be proud of the great leadership Steve has provided their student-athletes over these 17 years.
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BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS
Lee Weers, 49, Boone. (Covid) Born in Boone. BHS-1990. Was very active in Toreador athletics. Enlisted in the Iowa National Guard while still a high school student. Followed up by attending Active-Duty Training at the Defense Language Institute in California and was trained in Persian Farsi. ISU-2000 and became an Exchange Server Team member for Motorola in Illinois. Married Janet Ardele Brown in Boone in 1998 and in 2004, the family moved to Pella as Lee began his career with Central College as a Network Engineer. Survivors include his wife, Janet, of Pella, his parents, Stuart and Belva Weers, of Boone and a brother, Neal Weers, of Boone. Services in Pella.
Leah Wallace, 103, Boone/Eastern Star. Services in Winterset/Creston.
Susan Christina Lauritsen Baker, 72, Boone. Born in Eldora. Sioux City Riverside HS. Lived with her son in California until the 1990's when they moved to Boone. Married Gary Baker in Boone in 1997. Loved her plants and her dogs and cats. Survivors include her husband, Gary, of Boone, a son, a sister and a brother, Lance Lauritsen, of Boone. Services will be later.
Phyliss Joan Price Ward, 84, Ankeny. Born in Boone.
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