Coaching veteran new women's basketball assistant at KCKCC

By ALAN HOSKINS

A coach with a wealth of experience at the community college level is the new assistant women’s basketball coach at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Shaun Burki, 34, began his duties as assistant to Valerie Stambersky on Monday.

“I thought I was done coaching, that I’d get into another line of work and then saw the opening at KCKCC and just couldn’t resist the itch,” said Burki, who spent the last year at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Tex.. “I guess once a coach, always a coach.”

“I’m excited about Shaun joining the staff,” said Stambersky. “He brings a lot of recruiting experience to the table. Recruiting is his strength. It’s something he likes and is hungry to get after the task of recruiting in the Jayhawk Conference. We had some really good candidates for the job but Shaun’s experience set him apart. He also wants to learn more about the administrative side of coaching where I felt I could be of help so it’s just a good fit.”

While an assistant at Wabash Valley Community College in Mt. Carmel, Ill., Burki recruited the No. 1 community college player in the nation.

“I love to recruit. It’s my passion and we have a nationally known conference and great facilities to offer recruits.”

Burki first got into coaching while a student at Northeast Oklahoma A&M in Miami, spent a year at Oklahoma State and began his coaching career working with two coaching legends, Cletus Green and Bob Sneller, at Crowder Community College in Missouri.

After four years at Crowder, he was woman’s assistant at Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, Southeastern Community College in Keokuk, Iowa, and Wabash Valley.

“My first time on the KCKCC campus was when I came for my interview and I was pleasantly surprised and amazed. I think this college is a hidden gem and the possibilities are endless with the great basketball in the Kansas City metro area,” said Burki. “Athletic Director Tony Tompkins and Coach Stambersky have a lot going here and I very much appreciate the opportunity to continue the success of women’s basketball and look forward to this coming season and many more great season’s ahead.”

A 1997 graduate of Miami (Okla.) High School, Burki played football, basketball and baseball at nearby Quapaw before transferring to Miami his final semester to play baseball at a higher level.

“I was probably better at baseball and football but just loved basketball, a basketball junkie I guess.”  

Burki succeeds eight-year assistant Alicia Roth who is expecting her fourth child this month but will continue to assist in the program.