Genoa brothers set basketball Guinness World Record

GENOA – A pair of Genoa brothers this summer set a world record for most bounce passes with a basketball in a minute by a team of two under 16.

Now, they have set their sights on another record.

Cole Krueger, 15, and Caleb Krueger, 13, completed a record 80 bounce passes earlier this summer. The book of Guinness World Records sent them certificates verifying their claim to fame.

“It took us a few days, but we just kept working on it every day and eventually we got it,” said Caleb Krueger, an eighth grader at Genoa-Kingston Middle School.

The boys’ dad, Matt Krueger, helped them navigate the requirements of making their record official with Guinness World Records, which included providing continuous footage measuring the distance between their passes and the size of the ball.

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Cole Krueger, (left) 15, and his brother Caleb, 13, show off their Guinness World Record certificates Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, at their house in Genoa. The two hold the record for the most basketball passes in a minute for a pair under 16 and they are planning to attempt breaking the world record for the most three pointers in a minute by a duo. (Mark Busch)

“I thought it was good,” Matt Krueger said. “Guinness book of records is very specific. You have to be exactly a certain distance. We had to have it filmed in slow-mo. We had to have witnesses. We had to have all this stuff. The process of working with them is really intense.”.

“It’s fun to watch your kids set a goal and then achieve it. That part, for parents, everybody wants that, you want to see your kids focus on something and have some success with it.”

—  Marina Krueger

Caleb and Cole have been playing basketball for nearly half their lives. Now with one world record to their names, they’ve set their sights on another record: the most three-point shots made in a minute by a team of two players with assisted rebounding.

That record, 23, is held by adults and professional athletes. It was set by two duos from the Harlem Globetrotters in 2017 and 2021, but the Krueger kids believe they can beat the record.

Matt Krueger said his sons have gotten within one bucket of the achievement. While being interviewed by Shaw Local, Caleb and Cole Krueger made 19 three-point shots within a minute.

“So we’re thinking that we might beat that by the end of the year,” Matt Krueger said. “We have a goal of working on this, continuing to work every day, and now we’ve got to make sure we film it, because if we hit it and we don’t have it filmed it doesn’t count.”

Marina Krueger, the mother of the record-setting teens, said she’s been delighted to see her sons set and achieve their aspirations.

“It’s fun to watch your kids set a goal and then achieve it,” she said. “That part, for parents, everybody wants that. You want to see your kids focus on something and have some success with it. And you know what? It’s fun for them to build their confidence and watch them be proud of themselves, so it’s good.”

Caleb Krueger is playing eighth grade football this fall. Cole, a freshman at Genoa-Kingston High School who is running for class president, said he plans to use a heated, indoor basketball court his dad built in a barn-like structure for the family just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he wasn’t keeping track of the passes he and his brother made when they beat the under-16 world record. Cole said he isn’t exactly counting when they try for the three-point record, but said the next record they plan to beat will be more meaningful than the last.

“It’s going to mean a lot more because the Harlem Globetrotters have done this,” Cole Krueger said. “It’s just going to give us a lot of recognition for how far and well we can shoot.”

Matt Krueger, who played basketball at Rockford University, wanted to find a way to bring attention to his sons’ abilities.

“For them to get some recognition is just a nice thing for all of their hard work,” he said. “It just helps for whatever they’re going to do in high school and even in college. It gives them a goal to work on. The passing one was a little bit easier to beat so it was nice beating one goal first. It gives you confidence to go out and get the next one.”

The record-beating siblings said they’re focused on beating as many records as possible. But their real goal is to one day make it into the National Basketball Association.

“I think we want to be professional sports players,” Cole Krueger said. “But the chances of that are ... college is probably the most attainable goal we that have.”