Wichita State hires Sunrise’s Kyle Lindsted as assistant coach

Wichita State’s pipeline to Sunrise Christian Academy grew in recent years, guided by a growing relationship between Sunrise coach Kyle Lindsted and the Shockers coaches.

On Friday, Lindsted joined three of his former players making the move 4.7 miles from Sunrise’s Bel Aire campus to Wichita State. According to two athletic department sources, he joined the staff as an assistant coach, replacing Steve Forbes, who left in March for the top job at East Tennessee State.

Lindsted, 39 and a 1994 Sunrise graduate, also served as athletic director and began coaching in 2000. He built the programs into a national power using international recruiting ties. A recently added post-graduate team, coached by Luke Barnwell, added to Sunrise’s allure as a destination for basketball talent.

WSU coach Gregg Marshall spoke highly of Lindsted and Sunrise in recent years as the connection between the programs blossomed.

“I like the people that are in charge (at Sunrise),” Marshall said in November. “When you invest in a concept … or an idea, a lot of times, you’re betting on the jockey. You’re not betting on whether it’s a hamburger joint or a strip mall or an oil well. You’re betting on the person that’s doing it and their track record.”

Current Shockers Zach Brown, Rauno Nurger and Eric Hamilton played at Sunrise.

“Kyle has slowly, but surely, built one of the best, if not the best, prep schools in the country,” Marshall said. “Guys go there and they get coached and mentored. It improves them as individuals. It improves them as basketball players.”

The connection between the two programs extends to instruction. Sunrise’s system borrows from WSU’s and Lindsted and Marshall, through recruiting visits, learned they place similar demands on their players.

“I think we’re figuring out how to help each other,” Lindsted said in November. “They now know what we can do to help a player. Coach Marshall and I have a similar mindset. What’s there is the commitment to doing things right and doing things hard.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Wichita State hires Sunrise’s Kyle Lindsted as assistant coach."