Giorgi takes over Hibbing's boys basketball program

HIBBING—Kyle Giorgi had been coaching basketball at Nashwauk-Keewatin for 11 years, 10 as head coach at the Class A school.

Now, Giorgi is taking two steps up, moving up to Class 3A, as he has been hired as the new Hibbing High School boys basketball coach.

Giorgi is looking forward to the next step in his coaching career.

“It’s super exciting,and a great opportunity for me,” Giorgi said. “I’m looking forward to trying to continue to build and uphold the standard of an established program.”

Giorgi isn’t going into this position as a rookie.

His time with the Spartans taught him a lot about the standard of coaching.

“I learned what it takes to develop a winning program, to have success and what that requires,” Giorgi said. “I know the duties, responsibilities and the time commitment that comes with it.”

Making this move didn’t come easy for Giorgi.

“I gave it a lot of thought,” Giorgi said. “It was bittersweet telling my current players what I was going to do. It’s never an easy thing to do that, leaving. I knew that it was with the best intentions.

“It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I knew it was the right decision for me, but I enjoyed my coaching at Nashwauk-Keewatin. It was a great experience for me. I have a lot of great memories, and a lot of great players that I coached.”

Giorgi has been working with his new team, and he’s trying to use the same things he used as a Spartan.

“One of the things is some of the culture we established in that program,” Giorgi said. “You have to have that buy in. If you watched my other teams, you rarely saw a team that was going to work harder and always grow throughout the season.

“We have to continue to get better and improve on something. We can do that here, too.”

As Giorgi takes over the program, the cupboard isn’t bare.

“It’s exciting and fun to get to know the kids this summer,” Giorgi said. “This was our opportunity to get on the court together. There’s definitely a lot of great kids in the program, from the youth to the varsity teams.

“There’s a lot of great years ahead here.”

As for playing up two classes, Giorgi doesn’t see that as an issue.

“I’m super excited about the challenge of coming and playing 3A level teams,” Giorgi said. “It’s new teams, so getting to know those programs, for me, is exciting. It’s going to be invigorating. I’m looking forward to it.

“I like the idea of being at a higher level. At the end of the day, basketball is basketball. The game will be played at a higher level, so there will be different adjustments to make. The same things I applied at the A level can be applied at AAA. It’s a great opportunity for me to continue to grow as a coach.”