Catching up with Normal West alum, overseas pro basketball player Kyler Stork
NORMAL, Ill. — Kyler Stork pulls no punches and takes no liberties in how he shares the beginning of his basketball journey in junior high school.
“I got cut,” he says. “I was 0 for 3 in junior high. Throw baseball tryouts in there, and it was 0 for 6. I started to wonder if (sports) was my thing or not.”
A fair question, really, and enough to make anyone question his future with athletics.
The start of Stork’s basketball journey makes the arc of his winding story as compelling as it is unlikely. Resilience, love of the game and a considerable growth spurt have given a late bloom to Stork’s basketball career as he is in his third year of playing professionally overseas.
“This is nothing I could have expected,” Stork said.
Standing all of 5-foot-10 and 105 pounds in junior high school, Stork shot up to 6-5 and 210 by the time he graduated from Normal West High School. After barely making the freshmen B team, Stork eventually found his way into the varsity starting lineup by his junior and senior years. Even then, he was never the first, second or third scoring option for his high school teams.
Interest from college coaches was low initially, until he got a late offer from Division III Greenville College. He took the invitation but played sparingly in Greenville’s run-and-gun style and transferred to Eureka College after two years.
Stork continued to develop at Eureka under Coach Chip Wilde and worked his way into the rotation. He averaged about 10 minutes per game and finally cracked his way into the starting lineup against Greenville in regular-season finale when he scored a career-high 15 points to go with nine rebounds in a Red Devils’ win.
“He stuck with it, and he just kept getting better,” Wilde said. “He didn’t lose interest. He didn’t lose passion. He bet on himself, and it paid off. It’s an unbelievable story, from his junior high days to his pro career, and it couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
Stork also credits Ed Hafermann, who was sophomore coach at Normal West and now head varsity coach.
“Kyler was definitely a project from his freshman year on up,” Hafermann said. “We worked a lot on footwork with his back to the basket. Kyler was always eager to learn and was very coachable and open to constructive criticism. It’s great to see him doing well and playing ball overseas.”
Stork was named Eureka’s most-improved player as a senior. He earned his degree in business and marketing, but whatever dreams he had about continuing to play seemed to be dashed.
So, Stork went home. Like everyone else during the Covid-19 shutdown of 2020, he had lot of time on his hands.
“I just decided to make a highlight video of my senior year and posted it on YouTube,” Stork said. “It got some views and eventually put me in contact with the EuroBasketball Summer League.”
Indiana was under fewer restrictions at the time, and Stork attended a three-day camp in Indianapolis. He raised enough eyebrows at the camp to warrant conversations about his interest in playing overseas.
“The scout I talked to said he didn’t want to discount the fact that I was a D3 player, but there were a lot of D1 guys there,” Stork said. “Before I knew it, I was offered a spot to go to Armenia for a 10-day tryout. I figured, at worst, it was a great opportunity to go have fun and see a new country.
“We played six games in six days. It was a grind, but I played well and ended up fifth in the player rankings.”
A team named the BC Supersonics picked up Stork for a season that ran from October to January.
“It took some getting used to,” Stork said. “Not many spoke English, and some of the rules are a little different. It was fun playing against some good competition.”
With a border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan getting a little too close for comfort, Stork and several American players returned home before the season concluded. In 18 games, Stork played well enough to pique interest of other teams in Europe.
In September 2021, Stork landed a roster spot with a Portuguese team called FC Gaia. This season, he is playing with BC Gaia, a club based about 10 minutes from his apartment in Vila Nova de Gaia in the northern section of Portugal.
Games are played mostly on weekends. Fans attend games in the hundreds, sometimes drawing a couple thousand. Game atmosphere can have a soccer feel to it as fans blow on vuvuzelas to cheer their team.
“You get just a few people blowing on those things, and it can get really loud,” Stork said.
Stork is paid a stipend and has housing and food provided by the team. He supplements his income by working during the week as a virtual assistant, providing data analytics and marketing for an online property rental company.
Stork likens the talent he plays with and against as high Division II with an occasional mid-major Division I player. There are days he pinches himself that he has been afforded three seasons of professional basketball, including two in a country as beautiful as Portugal.
It has been a journey fueled by resilience and persistence.
“Adversity is going to happen,” he said. “Most of my adversity came early. As an athlete, you have to be able to take it all in, learn from it and build on it. That’s what my story comes down to: taking the adversity and running with it and being willing to make some sacrifices along the way.
Stork said as long as the opportunity is in front of him, he will continue playing.
“As long as the Good Lord lets me, I will,” he said. “His plan has been amazing. If my story can inspire one kid to not quit, then it’s worth it to me.”
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