Rock Island Today

Early on in her basketball life – which began in first grade – Kaycee Kallenberger got to know the lane really well.

“We played at my elementary school at the time, and my coaches made me stand in the middle of the paint the whole time, regardless of whether we were on offense or defense,” she said in an email interview with Rock Island Today.

Kallenberger, now a 6-foot-5 senior forward for Augustana women's team, still owns the paint. Through Dec. 7, Kallenberger was averaging a double-double in points and rebounds, and making life miserable for opposing shooters.

Kaycee Kallenberger | Augustana

In her first seven games this season, she averaged 12.7 points per game – second on the squad to Corrie Reiley's average of 15 points a contest – and a team-best 11 rebounds. Kallenberger blocked 21 shots in that span, an average of three blocks a game, and made 58.3 percent of her field-goal attempts.

That last number represents an area Kallenberger felt she had improved on since coming to Augustana.

“I was not very good at finishing my shot,” she said. “Now I feel like I am more of an offensive threat since I have been working on it with (Assistant Coach Jen Windmiller).”

Kallenberger has shown improvement in her main statistical categories. Last season, her first at Augustana, Kallenberger averaged 6.1 points on 43.2 percent shooting and 8.2 rebounds a game, and blocked 68 shots in 23 games, or 2.96 per contest. That total was the second-highest total in a season in program history. Her rebounding average – which tied for 14th best for a season in Augustana history – was fifth among players in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), while the blocked-shot average was second.

Following in the footsteps of her mother, Melissa, who also played basketball, Kallenberger shined at North Scott High School in Eldridge, Iowa, averaging eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks a game as a junior en route to all-conference honors, according to Eastern Illinois University's athletics website. She played her senior year at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf and earned all-conference honorable mention there.

Kallenberger spent the first season of her post-high-school career at Eastern Illinois and scored seven points in 11 games. She moved on to Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids for the 2014-15 season, then she arrived in Rock Island to join the Vikings program.

“I really liked the coaching staff and girls on the basketball team,” Kallenberger said. “I felt like I was needed here, and that’s what stood out to me from other schools I was looking at.”

This season, she cited among her goals a desire to help the team finish in the top four of the CCIW, which would qualify the Vikings for the conference tournament.

“Last year, we tied for fifth, and this year, I have confidence in my team that we can make it,” she said.

The Vikings were well on their way to that goal after the first seven games with an undefeated record, including a 2-0 mark in CCIW play.