Garden City High School Announces Swedberg as New Basketball Coach

Garden City, KS – The Garden will have a new leader on the court this season. One with experience in both high school and collegiate basketball, now looking to carry over momentum after a record-breaking 2022-23 season for the Buffaloes’ boys basketball team.

Garden City High School named Dordt University assistant coach Luke Swedberg their new boys basketball coach on Monday. It’s the first chance for Swedberg at the boys’ level in high school hoops, but he’s had plenty of success throughout his coaching career so far.

In his three seasons at Dordt – an NAIA University based in Sioux Falls, Iowa – Swedberg helped the Defenders to a 64-26 record. His final season was the best one at Dordt, finishing 26-7.

Swedberg also spent four years as the girls’ basketball coach at New Prague High School, a Section 1 division 4A school in Minnesota. He was honored as the 4A Girls Coach of the Year in 2020, leading the Trojans to a 21-7-1 record after turning the program around from nine games under .500 when he started.

New Prague also won back-to-back Wright County Conference titles under Swedberg.

He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Swedberg reached states every season with the Pirates.

Garden City is coming off a 20-2 season, breaking the record of the 1941-42 Buffaloes boys basketball team for the best winning percentage in program history. Swedberg replaces previous head coach Matt Williamson, who finished 30-13 in his two-year tenure with the Buffaloes.

Williamson departed for a similar role at his alma mater, Logan High School in West Virginia.

The Buffaloes lost four of their five starters from last season’s Western Athletic Conference-winning team, including top two scorers Jace Steinmetz (Garden City Community College) and Caleb Wiese (Fort Hays State). 

Garden City High begins its 2023 boys basketball season in December.