William Kiburis has found his fit to elevate his basketball game.

After the Gladbrook-Reinbeck senior ended a decorated high school career at the state tournament, he recently announced his commitment to Upper Iowa University’s men’s basketball team.

Kiburis is a three-time all-state selection by the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association and was this year’s IBCA Class 1A Player of the Year as well as a two-time Times-Republican Player of the Year.

Kiburis said he was also in talks with Central, Coe, Dubuque and Wartburg, but head coach Brooks McKowen’s club felt like the right move for Kiburis. He’s the latest in a long line of small-school dynamos like himself to follow what’s become a pipeline up to Fayette to play for the Peacocks.

“I felt like I fit in well with the guys on the team,” Kiburis said. “They’ve built that team on Iowa guys, and a lot of them come from small schools like me, and they’ve had success doing that.”

Schools also discussed baseball with Kiburis as an option at the college level. And while Kiburis said he’s always taken baseball seriously, basketball’s “always been the priority.”

“I’m always going to do whatever I can to make myself as good of a baseball player as I can, but basketball is what I’m best at and what I want to do in college,” Kiburis said. “But I’m not throwing away the idea of maybe doing both.”

Even if basketball ends up being his only avenue, the 6-foot-4 Kiburis said he knows there’s work to be done at Upper Iowa.

“The big thing to improve on is getting stronger, filling out my frame,” Kiburis said. “As far as basketball goes, I just have to get better, but I know the outside shooting is what colleges are looking for as well as just being smart and knowing where to be on the court.”

Kiburis is considering accounting or some kind of business education in the classroom, but hasn’t made a decision on that yet. But the harder decision for him is out of the way, at least.

“It’s a pretty big relief figuring out where I want to go,” Kiburis said. “I knew I had to make the decision at some point and figure it out so I could focus on getting better.”

Upper Iowa was 16-13 overall last year and 13-9 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference; the Peacocks bowed out to eventual NCAA D-II Elite Eight team University of Minnesota-Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NSIC tourney. The Peacocks were one year removed from a school-record-setting 26-6 season that ended in the NCAA DII Central Regional semifinals.

The coaching staff for Upper Iowa also includes assistant coach and Grundy Center alum Trevor Hook. Joe Smoldt, an alum of both G-R and Upper Iowa basketball and — like McKowen — a former Mr. Basketball, served as a graduate assistant last season.

Kiburis feels that the success of Gladbrook-Reinbeck basketball as a team-with two substate final appearances in the years before the Rebels’ trip to the 1A tournament this year as state quarterfinalists — has put him in a great position to succeed at Upper Iowa.

“We had a good winning history,” Kiburis said. “And knowing what it takes to get the job done, being prepared and studying film, I’ve prepared as best as I possibly can.”