Trojans hire Crimson assistant to coach boys' basketball

The high school basketball season is still months away, but the Triopia High School Board wasted little time in finding the two coaches it needed.

At its meeting that didn’t conclude until late Wednesday night, the board hired Morgan Braucht to coach boys’ basketball and Travis Sievers to coach girls’ basketball

Braucht, a longtime assistant for the Jacksonville High School boys’ basketball team, was hired to replace Brian Dour, who was relieved of his basketball and baseball coaching duties earlier this month.

“I’m very excited to get a chance to work with the boys and to get to build a program,” Braucht said. “I feel like getting to work with the guys that I worked with at Jacksonville has really helped prepare me to run my own varsity program.”

Braucht, a native of Joy, attended Westmer High School and graduated in 1996. He played football and basketball in high school and eventually found his way to Illinois College after a year at Black Hawk College in Moline. Braucht played one year of collegiate basketball at IC before starting his coaching career while still a college student.

He started off as a volunteer assistant under Dan Sparrow at JHS before taking over head coaching duties at Jonathan Turner Junior High School for three years. He then served as Jacksonville’s freshman coach for three years and the school’s sophomore coach for two years after that.

Braucht feels the time he coached at Jacksonville was well spent.

“I’ve just really come to appreciate the importance of building a program from the lower grades all the way up through high school,” the new coach said. “I’ve seen what you need to do to build a program and being a freshman coach and a sophomore coach, I’ve seen what the kids need to learn to be a varsity basketball player.”

Braucht is looking forward to coaching at Triopia, he says, because of the school’s rich history in sports.

“I know that they’ve got a pretty good tradition of success in athletics, and that’s one of the things I’m excited about,” he said. “The community supports their athletic teams, and I’m excited to start working with the boys.”

Braucht, who will continue to teach at Eisenhower Elementary School in Jacksonville, said he’s ready for the summer to begin. He’ll be coaching his new team at the Pepsi/Passavant Team Rehab Shootout at Illinois College later this month.

“My main goal for the summer is just to get to know the guys, their strengths and weaknesses, and getting to know them as people,” he said.

“Then I’ll just build from there.”

Sievers, the board’s choice to coach girls’ basketball, was Triopia’s junior varsity coach in the sport last season. He teaches history at Meredosia High School.

“I’ve been wanting to be a high school head coach for a long time now, and this is a great opportunity for me,” Sievers said. “It’s kind of exciting, and I’m ready to get going at it.”

Sievers has been coaching at either Triopia or Meredosia since 2003. He was an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Meredosia for four years and was the junior varsity head coach his final two years there. Sievers has also coached junior high baseball at Meredosia the past three years.

He is a graduate of Carrollton High School, where he played basketball under Jeff Krumwiede before injuries cut his career short.

“I had some good coaches there that I kind of learned under, especially Coach Krumwiede,” Sievers said.

Having already spent a season working with the Triopia-Meredosia girls’ basketball team is a bonus, Sievers said.

“Being the new coach last year, I didn’t really know them, but I tried to get to know them, learn their names,” he said. “Once you do that, it creates a better bond that way. I think me getting to know them last year will help me this year.”

Sievers said he was excited to get the job and added that he’s already planning for the upcoming season.

“You’ve been waiting for this moment, so it’s like now you’re there,” he said. “It’s the summer, though, so it’s a long time before the season starts. So you’re just doing the preparation stuff right now. It’s running through your head, and you just can’t wait to get to it.”