Kyle Waters goes for a layup against Jersey this past basketball season.

Waters holds the ball in the corner of the court waiting for a play to develop.

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CARROLLTON - It’s been three weeks since he graduated high school and Kyle Waters has been taking it easy trying to enjoy his last summer before starting college.

That’s the opposite of what he did this past season on the basketball court. Waters would take a lot of double hits; someone knocking into him and his back hitting the floor. However, more times than not he would react with a smile on his face. Thirty-eight times to be exact.

That’s how many charges he successfully garnered, as well as a permanent bruise on his left elbow.

“It’s hit or miss. It’s either you’re going to get it or not get a call, or you’re going to get a foul called on you,” Waters said. “Some of [the calls] were bad, and some were good. When I did get a blocking call on one that I thought I was set, I would not say anything, but wonder that’s how it’s going to go the next time. I’d figure out what I did wrong and fix it.”

Waters is the new leader in Carrollton school history for charges taken in a season. Andy Stumpf previously held the record with 34 charges in the 1999-2000 season, ironically that was the year Waters was born.

Probably the more remarkable achievement is that he played in 26 games, while Stumpf had 34 in 33 contests. Adding on, Waters averaged an unheard of 1.5 charges per game.

This wasn’t a years in the planning kind of dream. The goal of breaking the record was born just hours before Carrollton’s first game of the year against Southwestern.

“We were on the bus, and coach Goetten gave us all a note card and said write down a team goal and a personal goal. I said win regionals [for the team goal]. Then for my personal goal I look at Nathan Cummins, we sat on the bus together, and I looked down and go, “I’m gonna put down a charge record. Break the charge record,” Waters said. “Chucky just looks at me and says, “put it down!”

“I told myself to get one charge and try to put the mindset to it. You can’t really practice taking a charge. You have to be in the right place at the right time and of course get the call.”

On cue, he took one and was rewarded for it. That set the tone for the entire season whenever Waters was underneath a basket on defense.

“They just started adding up. Progressively over time, I kept getting closer and closer [to the record],” Waters said. “For a couple of stretches I would get two a game, and occasionally I’d get three.”

When it became clear that Waters was on pace to break the record, he started going hard, which would help and not help the Hawks at times. He would always be sure to be the first to get back on defense, but would probably not attempt an offensive rebound.

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“I kept looking at how many games we had left before regionals. I needed so many more, so I started getting more aggressive, probably a little bit too much.”

It takes courage to put your body on the line and have someone fly into you, sometimes at full speed. Waters remembers a play against Jersey when he took a charge against six-foot-five forward Blake Whitman.

“He just ran me over like it was football,” Waters said with a smile. “His whole body weight fell on me and knocked the wind out of me. It took me a good minute and a half to get up.”

In the Hawks final game, senior night against Brown County Waters needed four charges to break the record. Before halftime he got three, tying the record and then eventually reached number four. Not surprisingly that was also a career-high for him in a single game and is quite possibly a school record as well.

“It was Brown County, so they’re a fast team up and down the floor. At halftime, we were down 20, and the only thing coach Goetten said in the locker room was, “go get it, Kyle.”

“After I took [the fourth charge] coach [Greg] Pohlman, who was our PA announcer said that’s a new charge record and what not. He made a little big deal about it,” Waters said smiling.

Back when he was a freshman, Waters nearly gave up basketball just because the rest of his classmates had done so.

Although baseball is his better sport, Waters insists he misses basketball more, and he has good reason too. After all, he was apart of three straight regional championship squads except his senior year.

It’s been three weeks since he graduated high school and Kyle Waters has been taking it easy trying to enjoy his last summer before starting college.

Now a Carrollton alum, Waters will be attending Lewis and Clark Community College and plans to be there for two years then eventually find a four-year college.

He was a successful baseball player winning a regional championship all four years and playing a pivotal role in the last three. A left-handed hitter, Waters’ batting average was over .400 this past season. He hopes to continue his career sometime down the road while in college.

Additionally, he was a four-year letterman for the Carrollton Hawks basketball program. Though he was never a standout player, he did achieve something most would likely shy away from at first site. Waters wasn’t a scoring machine, but he was a mad scientist at taking charges.

Waters takes a Triopia defender 1-on-1 this past December.

Waters waits on a pitch to be thrown.

Waters catches a pop up at second base against Calhoun this past season.

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