Kachine Alexander was known for the passion and emotion she showed on Carver-Hawkeye Arena during her Hawkeye tenure from 2007-11 on the women’s basketball camp.
Alexander has now come back to Iowa City after a year of playing overseas in Austria in attempt to spread not only skills, but also the respect and love for the game she herself portrays through her first camp for girls.
With the help of her mother, Jennifer Davis, Alexander has made an idea that popped into her head very recently, into a reality.
"Even before the Iowa [women’s basketball] camp, girls were contacting me on Facebook asking if I would be at the camp coaching," Alexander said. "When I worked the camp, the girls I was helping kept asking me if I was doing my own camp. They actually gave me the idea. I brought it up to my coaches, and they said that maybe I should do it. I just went from there."
Davis went about planning the basics for the camp while Alexander proceeded via Facebook to publicize the camp. A facility had to be found to have the camp. The daughter-mother duo decided on hosting it at Iowa’s Field House.
"All Kachine wants to do is give back to the community in a formal fashion," Davis said. "That’s the outcome. She wants to be able to help young ladies who like to do what she’s done. She’s giving back."
Alexander took advantage of the digital age and social media that society now depends on. The entire camp was publicized on Facebook. There has been a lot of interest shown by girls of middle school age even though the camp is open to third through ninth grade players.
The KASH Alexander basketball clinic was originally planned to happen in early July. She decided to have it today to allow more girls to come.
The changes and all the planning has not gotten to Alexander. It might be stressful for her mom, but it will be fun for her, she said.
Alexander was a key player in a Hawkeye uniform. She started all 31 games her senior year. She was nominated for the prestigious Wooden Award and scored over 1,000 points throughout her career. She was drafted to the Minnesota Lynx after college, but following the WNBA preseason she joined the Austria Vienna Flying Foxes.
Alexander’s teammate from overseas, Nikol Soulis, will be helping her coach and run the camp. They were able to travel Europe playing basketball. Alexander said she loved where she was, but enjoyed playing in Spain and the Canary Islands.
Now that she is back for the summer, the Iowa women’s team is enjoying her spunky and enthusiastic personality while she’s on this side of the world.
"I’m really excited for Kachine. She’s a very high-energy person and she loves to teach people the game of basketball — that’s her love," senior Hawkeye center Morgan Johnson said. "I feel like there’s no one better at it. She has a strong personality and commands attention… She’s going to do a great job with the campers. She an teach them that heart and that hustle and the love she has for the game.
"No one can teach that better than Kachine."
