Knueppel works with Pines basketball program

It was a cool opportunity for the Northland Pines girls’ basketball team to work with Klay Knueppel, the current Head Women’s Coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, last week, as the coach was visiting the area with family.

Knueppel said he’s been vacationing in the Northwoods for some time and actually helped with camp up here years ago. The opportunity arose for him to come into the gym to work with the girls, and he took it.

“I used to come up here years ago and help run a camp. Coach [Lenny] Orlowski just reached out to me. I know his family. So that kind of just brought me up here,” said Knueppel after the first day of camp last Wednesday. “I vacation up here every once in a while. I enjoy fishing, so I came up here and then I got the opportunity to work with some girls in basketball. Under the direction of Jaclyn Halsey, the Pines girls’ program has bought into Halsey’s ways, and having the honor of working with a college-level coach and a guy who is always around high-level college and NBA talent is the next step in building the program.
Knueppel is the uncle of Kon Knueppel, who was drafted in the top five of the 2025 NBA draft and holds the NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a season as a rookie, and his brothers, who are well on their way to playing D1 basketball. Klay was part of “The Flying Knueppel Brothers”, who dominated on the 3-on-3 Gus Macker tournament circuit and were later inducted into the Gus Macker Hall of Fame. It was something that Halsey said she could not pass up.

Three days of direction from Knueppel ended last Friday and he said the most important thing he wants to pass along to the players is having a love for the game. He said that is one of the biggest things he talks about at the college level.

“Just loving basketball and getting in the gym and working on it in the summertime,” Knueppel said. “That’s a big thing that we talk about at the college level, spending the time in the summer, getting in the gym to become a better player.”

Knueppel also passed along it doesn’t matter the duration but consistency is what matters most when it comes to getting good at something.

“Try not to make them feel like you have to spead a ton of time to get good at something, but just do something every single day and that you can get good at it,” he said. “If you do it every day, you can get good at it.”

Day one of the camp was getting a feel for the team and working on some fundamentals to get going. Knueppel mentioned the whole team had a good attitude entering the summer.
“We did a lot of ball handling. We did some form shooting and got into some pivot work with the players,” he explained. “Just great attitude. It’s been a joy to work with them and they listen. That’s the biggest thing for me is if you are a good listener, you’re going to learn, and with this year it sounds like they listen well. Sounds like they have some really good younger talent coming up.”

The Eagles were also busy after the three day stint, as the Eagles left this past Sunday for a team camp held at UW-Stevens Point. Pines also hosts a weekly summer league, which started last week and will run this Thursday, June 25, and then Thursday July 9 and Thursday, July 23. Area teams like Rhinelander, Three Lakes and Tomahawk are a part of the league.