May 7, 1999
Columbia, Mo. - Men's Basketball Coach Quin Snyder announced today that JOSH KROENKE of Columbia, Mo., has signed a national letter-of-intent to attend the University of Missouri.
Kroenke, a 6-foot-4 guard, is considered one of the top guards among the nation's prep ranks. He was an all-state selection at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Mo., where he helped lead the Bruins to a 30-1 record and a third-place finish in Class 4A in 1997. Kroenke graduated from Rock Bridge in 1998, and earned all-state honors after averaging 17.8 points and 4.3 rebounds a game as a senior. He spent the past year at New Hampton School, a college prep school in New Hampton, N.H., where he averaged 15.4 points per game last year.
"Josh is a talented basketball player," said Missouri Coach Quin Snyder. "Myself and my staff could not be more excited about having an opportunity to coach Josh. He possesses a combination of natural ability, inner character and work ethic that I believe are the bricks with which we want to build. I'm truly pleased that Josh wants to play for Missouri and represent his state," said Snyder.
As a sophomore at Rock Bridge, Kroenke was an integral part of a team that went 26-3. His junior season, he averaged 13 points and was an all-district selection on the Bruins' squad which finished 30-1 and was ranked #1 in the state of Missouri for the majority of the 1996-97 season, before finishing third in Class 4A. In the 4A third-place game, played in the Hearnes Center, Kroenke scored 23 points (on 9-of-12 shooting), in leading Rock Bridge to the win. The following season, he averaged nearly 18 points a game as a senior for Rock Bridge, playing on a team in which he was the only returning starter.
Regarded as a top-50 national talent according to several recruiting services, Kroenke chose Missouri over Iowa, Cincinnati, Syracuse and Georgia, among others. He is the second recruit to sign with Snyder in the past week. Kroenke joins Kansas City's Kareem Rush in what is quickly becoming one of the nation's top recruiting classes for the first-year Missouri coach.