Basketball

Where Are They Now: Kasey Morlock

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Women’s Basketball
Years: 1994-1998

At North Dakota State, Kasey Morlock was a legend. She was a Division II Collegiate Women Athlete of the Year, an All-American, a Player of the Year, a three-time NCAA National Championship All-Tourney team member, a two time All-Tourney MVP, a three time national champion and NDSU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,233 points.

Since Kasey’s graduation, she has become an engineer, mom, coach, teacher and wife.

 

Although she said goodbye to her collegiate basketball career, it wasn’t goodbye to her athletic career altogether. Morlock spent a season playing volleyball for the Bison as well, hitting .306 in limited action for a Bison team that finished third in NCAA regionals and ranked 11th nationally.

From there, the former star center would graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering and go on to work for IBM in Rochester, M.N. Shortly after beginning her professional career, Morlock married her husband Garth Tschetter, whom she met through a shared major at NDSU.

Morlock worked for over a decade at IBM until retiring when her youngest son was born in 2009. However, it’s not as if the mom, coach and substitute teacher ever slowed down.

China

Shortly after leaving North Dakota State, Morlock began coaching as an assistant to her mother, who was the girls’ head varsity coach in Stewartville, M.N. She helped in that role for four years before taking time off with the birth of her second son, Henry. She picked up the clipboard and whistle again in 2008 to coach 8th-grade boys. Then, she moved to China.

For two years, Morlock and her family lived in Beijing, China to be closer to Garth who also worked for IBM and often had to travel there for work. Although her oldest son was in 4th-grade and her youngest was three years old at the time, the experience of living abroad had a permanent impact on the young family.

“It was an eye-opening experience for them,” Morlock said. “I think because of that, they really love travel. They’re also very aware of environmental issues because of what they experienced living in Beijing.”

During her time abroad, Morlock expanded her horizons as well, coaching a level of basketball she wasn’t quite accustomed to.

Kasey Morlock’s NDSU Athletic Achievements

1997
Honda Award winner(Division II Collegiate Women Athlete of the year)

1996-1997
NCAA Today’s Top VIII award winner

1997
CoSIDA Academic All-America second team

1995
Midwest Sports Channel Division II Female Award Winner

2X NCC All-Academic Team (1996-1997)

1997
WBCA/Rawlings Division II Player of the Year

3X Kodak Division II All-District and All-Americans (1995-1997)

1997
Women’s Division II Bulletin Player of the Year

3X first-team Division II Bulletin All-American (1995-97)

2X first-team Daktronics Division II All-Region and All-American (1995-96)

3X NCAA All-Region MVP (1994-96)

3X NCAA Division II National Champion (1994,1995,1996)

3X North Central Conference Champion (1995,1996,1997)

3X NCAA National Championship All-Tourney Team (1994-96)

2X All-Tourney NCAA National Championship Tournament MVP (1995-1996)

1995
North Central Conference Player of the Year

1994
NCC Freshman of the Year

4X All-NCC Selection (1994-97)

“While I was in China, I helped coach a 7th-grade girls basketball team,” Morlock said. “It was a really interesting experience and a really interesting level of basketball. In America, most girls start playing around the 3rd-grade, some start sooner. However, this was the first time playing for these 7th-grade girls. During the first day of practice, I tried running the Mikan drill and then I realized we didn’t even know how to dribble. It really was a good experience in showing me the importance of sports.”

Coaching

Upon returning to the U.S., Morlock continued to coach, transitioning to a role with the 9th-grade boys squad in Stewartville—a position she spent seven years s at, only leaving to spend one year coaching JV boys before returning to the freshman squad and eventually stepping aside in 2021.

But she hasn’t really stepped aside, you can find Morlock coaching her youngest son’s 7th-grade travel team.

“This is the first year in probably over 20 years that I haven’t coached in the school,” Morlock said. “I’ve been coaching for a long time. I don’t miss the time commitment. But I’ve never coached my youngest, so it’s been fun to coach him. And we’ve actually gotten along! That’s not always the case when you coach your own kids, so it has been good!”

She also helps substitute teach at schools in the area, which helps feed her passion for bettering the youth.

“It’s so important,” Morlock said. “When I think back to North Dakota State, where we were obviously ultra-successful, I don’t think I could tell you hardly anything about the three national championship games we played in. But I could tell you a lot about all of the speeches coach gave and the memories I made with my teammates during practices and bus rides and all of the off-the-court stuff. That’s important for these young kids to have as well.”

The Farm

Aside from the brief stint in China, the Morlock/Tschetter clan has spent nearly their entire time as a family living on a farm owned by Morlock’s parents since the early 90’s. “Back in 2003, the people that were renting the farmhouse were moving out and we decided to move in and we’ve been there ever since (aside from the stint in China).”

The farm is small, a little over 160 acres, and the growing and cattle raising operations are small as well. However, the impact it has had on Morlock’s family has been anything but.

“It has been a great place for my three boys to grow up,” Morlock said. “There’s lots of room for them to play. We live right along the river and two out of the three of my kids love to fish.”

However, there are also a lot of chores to do around the farm. Morlock’s father does the majority of the crop management while her husband handles a lot of the day-to-day chores, and Morlock takes care of the work during calving season.

“Sometimes I wish we had a little lawn that took a half-hour to mow,” Morlock said. “But we love it here.”

And of course, the property wouldn’t be complete without its own basketball court that the family of athletes has utilized for years.

“It’s our activity,” Morlock said. “I’m horrible now, I mostly just rebound, but we also play a lot of two-on-two. Over the years, I played one-on-one with all of them until I couldn’t beat any of them.”

In addition to the produce and cattle, the family also raises pigs for themselves and to sell to friends and family.

“We have a huge garden, which I love,” Morlock said. “We used to have chickens until our dog killed them. It’s more of a hobby farm for us and a real farm for my dad, but he’s 77. So, he starting to hand over the operation.”

The Family

When asked what she’s most proud of from her postplaying days, Morlock will tell you without hesitation that she is most proud of her family. Alongside her husband, the two have raised three children: Will (19), Henry (16) and Pete (13). And all of them have developed a deep love of sport like their mother. Will is currently a freshman on the Michigan Wolverines basketball team.

“Basketball seems to be a big one for all of my boys,” Morlock said. “But they also love golf and track and there are a handful of other things mixed in as well. The experience in China really sparked a love of travel for them. We also have a cabin in the Park Rapids area and we love to be outside fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding and all of that type of stuff.”

The entire family developed a passion for traveling during their time in China and explored it through trips to places like Bali, Thailand and Vietnam during their two-year stay.

“It was really great to see all of the different cultures,” Morlock said. “Vietnam was probably my favorite place to go because we had the chance to learn about the American War. Growing up, it was always talked about here as the Vietnam War.”

Nowadays, the Morlock/ Tschetter clan is the same as most active families. Free time on the farm is spent doing chores and playing pick-up games. Nights and weekends are spent watching their middle and youngest sons play on the hardwood in Stewartville, M.N., while they tune in to watch their oldest son’s team play for conference titles in the Big Ten. And every once in a while, the entire family of five comes together for some friendly competition on the backyard court.

Where Are They Now: Kasey Morlock
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