With nine points and five rebounds per game, Central men’s basketball junior guard, Pete Walker, has taken a big step from his sophomore year to this season. Walker is second on the team in assists, and leads the Dutch with 15 steals through 11 games. He’s also getting the second-most number of minutes per game with almost 26. However, when he came over to Central as a sophomore, he was not a basketball player. A former member of Northwest Missouri State, Walker was a Top-6 varsity tennis player for the NCAA Division II program. He was a few inches shorter and hadn’t played basketball since high school. Pete’s dedication to getting into shape and being a main cog in the Dutch hoops machine is what has bolstered his abilities and value to Central and to Coach Craig Douma.

“He came in every morning to (the) field house and worked out, even outside of practice,” Douma says. “He wasn’t getting the playing time last year, and ended up playing some JV. He just kept at the weight room and he springboarded himself into the spring and to the summer and came in this fall and finished really strong in the weight room, and it has just helped his confidence so much. Now he can attack the basket, he gets there easier, and he rebounds the ball really well.”

Walker will try to help the Dutch notch the first win of the 2015-16 conference schedule this Wednesday up in Decorah against Luther. Central won on a last-second shot a year ago in their final meeting, 70 – 69.