One of Nocona’s most accomplished athletes is excited to be returning home to Texas for college as she transfers to Texas Women’s University.
Kleinhans spent her first two years in college playing basketball at the University of Northern Colorado, a mid major division I school that is 719 miles from Nocona.
That distance was a major factor in making the choice to enter the transfer portal at the end of the college basketball season.
Kleinhans was originally signed to go to West Texas A&M, but when the coach who recruited her, Kristen Mattio, was hired at Northern Colorado Kleinhans decided to follow her despite knowing she would have to go several states farther north.
Her first year was spent glued to the bench for the first time in her life as she redshirted her freshman year to keep a season of eligibility. For someone who never missed any long chunk of playing time in high school with any major injury, it was the longest Kleinhans had spent waiting and watching.
“That was probably the toughest year mentally for me” Kleinhans said. “Especially because I wasn’t playing. I was practicing with them, but I couldn’t get that opportunity to play. I talked to the coaches about redshirting, but they didn’t want to rule me out in case someone got hurt, but thankfully no one did and I was able to keep my year of eligibility.”
It paid off this past season when she and several young players who had bonded off the court took major roles on the team despite their inexperience. Predictably the team had an up and down season with so many underclassmen contributing.
They went 8-5 in non-conference games, but only 5-13 in conference. In the Big Sky tournament the team won against Weber State before ending its season with a loss to Northern Arizona.
Kleinhans started all but one of the 31 games she played. Despite not handling the ball as much as she was used to, she still finished third on the team averaging 8.5 points, was second in rebounds averaging 4.7 and led the team with 3.2 assists. At the end of the season she was named to the Big Sky All-Academic Team.
Still, despite bonding with her teammates and thinking these were the girls she was going “to have in her wedding party one day,” the home sickness never went away.
“Two years up there I was just starting to get away from the home sickness, but we would have games and a lot of my teammates were Colorado natives so they would have their family come and it was just so hard for me to watch knowing, if I was somewhere in Texas, I’d have my whole fan base,” Kleinhans said.
She didn’t want to transfer since she was so close with her teammates, but knew the problem was not going away and she would regret it if she did it sometime in the future with less years left to play.
When looking to transfer, one option was already on her mind as she had been secretly keeping up with another program for several years.
Texas Women’s University had been her second choice during her recruitment, but she had never made an official visit.
With the Lady Pioneers not just being in Texas but close to home and the program coming off back-to-back 20 win seasons, the fit seemed perfect when they showed interest in her. She made it official on April 20.
“Averee knows how to win,” Coach Beth Jillson said. “She has a high basketball IQ, which allows her to have incredible vision on the court. Averee passes the ball at a high level, can shoot the three and will be an immediate threat on offense. We are excited to welcome her to the Pioneer family.”
The transfer means Kleinhans will be going from division I competition to division II, but besides teams lacking huge height in the post she does not think it will be much of a dip in competition.
“Some (Lone Star) conference teams probably could play tough with mid major division I schools like I was playing,” Kleinhans said. “I’m not counting anyone out. I was supposed to go division II, I just got that opportunity to go division I. So it’ll still be tough for sure. Girls probably won’t be as tall as like a Kansas State or Montana State or something like that, but will still be very competitive.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.