Judge prep powerhouse for yourself

South Medford’s Kyle Singler brings his game to Les Schwab tourney

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Dec 23, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Dennis Murphy has been coaching high school basketball for 34 years. The veteran South Medford High coach says he’s never been around a prep player more talented than Kyle Singler.

Mike Krzyzewski annually skims from the cream of the crop of the nation’s finest basketball recruits. At or near the top of the Duke coach’s list is Singler.

Get the picture?

Singler, a 6-8, 210-pound junior, is a rare talent. And Portland-area fans will be able to get a look at one the state’s best-ever players in next week’s Les Schwab Invitational. The second-ranked Panthers (5-0) face seventh-ranked Beaverton (4-0) in their tourney opener at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Liberty High.

“The Schwab tournament will be a new experience and great competition for us,” Singler says. “And Beaverton’s a good team. That’s going to be a test. Hopefully we’ll be ready for it.”

Singler averaged 17.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in 2004-05. He led South Medford to a 24-7 record and sixth place in the state tournament. And he is an improved version of what he was as a sophomore.

“Kyle is bigger, stronger, more mature,” says Murphy, in his 18th season at the Panther helm. “As good as he was as a sophomore, he’s better this year. And he’s going to get even better.”

Singler underwent knee surgery last summer, which caused him to miss half of the football season this fall. When he returned, he took over the quarterback spot and guided the Panthers into the playoffs, where they lost to Sprague in the first round.

The kid has athletic genes on both sides of the family. Father Ed was a starting quarterback at Oregon State, and his uncle Bill Singler was an all-Pac-8 receiver at Stanford.

Kyle’s mother, the former Kris Brosterhous, has four brothers who dominated Klamath Falls prep sports for more than decade. B.G. Brosterhous, who is 6-10, played basketball at Texas. The other three played at Oregon: Greg (football and baseball), Rick (basketball) and John (football). And two of B.G.’s daughters, Ericka and Kerstin, played basketball at OSU.

The world’s his court

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