The Barton Community College Board of Directors approved the hiring of Carter Kruger on Thursday as the new women’s head basketball coach.

Kruger, a one-year assistant coach at Barton, replaces Darin Spence, who left two weeks ago to accept the women’s head post at NCAA Division-II Newman University in Wichita.

Stability is something Barton athletic director Trevor Rolfs said he sought, and Kruger seems to fit the bill.

“What we’re trying to build is not going to be an overnight thing,” Kruger said. “We’re trying to build a program that is going to sustain itself and that’s going to grow stronger year by year.

“Barton is a great place, and I am truly excited to be here. I want to see what we can truly build because our athletic department is going in a direction where we’re striving for excellence and that’s what I’m trying to do here, too.”

Kruger, 26, worked two years as a men’s basketball assistant at Mankato State University in Minnesota before leaving to become an assistant women’s coach at Garden City in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division.

After two years in Garden City, Kruger accepted the post late last summer to work as Spence’s assistant.