Sartorius off to Grand View

MT. PLEASANT - Former Mt. Pleasant basketball star Brady Sartorius will be a Grand View Viking. The Kirkwood Community College sophomore will transfer to Grand View next season after missing a good chunk of his second year with injuries.

Sartorius, a three-time Class 3A first team All-Stater, was the leading scorer for a Panther squad that won three-straight Southeast Conference title from the 2015-16 season to the 2017-18 season. Mt. Pleasant went 24-0 in league play over that time period, and made the state tournament in both 2017 and 2018. Sartorius scored over 1800 points at Mt. Pleasant and holds the school record for assists and steals.

Sartorius found success early on at Kirkwood. He scored 6.4 points per game off the bench for the Eagles, who won the NJCAA National Championship. He was a game one starter for the Eagles as a sophomore.

'It's something I'll always remember and be grateful for,” Sartorius says. 'Kirkwood really changed me as a player. I better understand the game now than I did when I was in high school.”

Although he started early on for Kirkwood, injuries took their toll. He played in just 12 games in the 2019-20 season, starting in five.

Sartorius found out he had a bulging disk in his lower back in the fall, and says it had bothered him throughout the season. He sat out for a couple of months before playing in the last couple of games in the season.

'It was frustrating,” Sartorius says. 'When you're injured, you have guys who are just as good as you battling for time. Specifically with the back, it's just frustrating. At some points it would feel like it was getting better and then it would flare up again.”

Sartorius said the decision to choose Grand View, an NAIA school in Des Moines, was partially based on their commitment to the young guard throughout his time away from the court.

'I had some schools talking to me, and talking to my coaches at the beginning of the year,” Sartorius said. 'With my injury, they kind of backed off. Grand View still pursued me when I was hurt. That made me feel wanted.”

Sartorius could be a nice boost for the Vikings, who went 6-23 overall last year and 4-20 in the Heart to America Conference. The HAAC ended the year with three teams in receiving votes in the NAIA Top 25 poll, including fifth-ranked William Penn, No. 22 Clarke and Mid-America Nazarene, which was in 'others receiving votes.”

'Our conference is pretty loaded,” Sartorius says. 'Usually William Penn has some Division 1 transfers, and so do a lot of other schools. I think we can compete with anyone. This past year, they struggled a little bit, but if you look at their stats, they stayed with teams.”

Grand View's 2019-20 roster had eight Iowans on the squad, but Sartorius says he hasn't played with or against any of his future teammates. He is familiar with Ryan Miller, a 2018 North Linn graduate.

Sartorius says he and the old Mt. Pleasant squad still get together from time to time. He was one of six seniors on Mt. Pleasant's 2017-18 team.

'We stay in touch pretty consistently,” Sartorius says. 'Over Christmas break the last two years, we've played some pick up when we've all been back, just to get out there and play a couple more times. If we can, we'll hang out every once in a while. Kieran (Kohorst) will be in Des Moines next year, so I'll probably hang out with him a lot.”

Sartorius is one of two ‘18 Panthers playing college ball. Longtime teammate Jordan Magnani plays at Cornell College in Cedar Rapids, an NCAA Division III school. Although NAIA schools do match up with Division III schools every so often, it is unlikely the two would meet as Grandview only plays a handful of nonconference games each season due to playing in a 13-team league, which takes up the vast majority of the schedule.