www.fhsuathletics.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWith COVID-19, we\ndon\u2019t know what could change week to week, day to day,\u201d Kennett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett found that out\nthe hard way earlier this year. Of all the lessons she learned from playing the\ngame of basketball, the most impactful one might have been the last one of her\ncollege career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett was one of the\nseniors on the Fort Hays State University women\u2019s team looking forward to one\nlast chance at making the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II Tournament last\nspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FHSU finished the\nseason strong and earned a berth in the Central Regional in Warrensburg, Mo.,\nin March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The players naturally\nwere excited but a little nervous about playing in a near-empty arena. The team\nhad learned while en route to the tournament that attendance would be limited\nto mostly just family members because of the Coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would be quite a\nchange for the Tigers, who were used to playing in front of large crowds in\nGross Memorial Coliseum and on the road in MIAA arenas. The Tiger women\u2019s team\nhas been ranked second in home attendance in NCAA Division II for the past six\nyears running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But college athletes\nare adaptable, and Kennett and her teammates seemed to take it in stride,\nwelcoming a new experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett said they\nchatted about how \u201cweird\u201d it would be in that kind of atmosphere and were\njoking about it as they checked into their hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, barely settled\ninto their hotel rooms, the players received the shocking news that the\nregional tournament, and all post-season action for NCAA Division II, was\ncanceled because of the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just like that,\nKennett\u2019s senior season \u2013 and her college basketball career \u2013 was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like any athlete,\nKennett had experienced disappointments over the years. She knew that with\nbasketball, nothing is certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve always got to\nbe ready for whatever is thrown at you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this was more\ndeflating than any loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, wow, it was so\nsurreal when we found out,\u201d Kennett said. \u201cThere was a lot of sadness, crying,\nall kinds of emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tigers got back on\nthe bus and returned to Hays that same night. They learned more discouraging\nnews on the return trip home. FHSU was moving classes to online learning for\nthe remainder of the spring. A week later, students were asked to leave campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now eight months later,\nfollowing the most unusual sequence of events in her life, Kennett finds herself\nback in familiar territory. She graduated in May and decided to return to her\nalma mater to work on her master\u2019s. As she anticipated the start of the season,\nKennett reflected on life lessons learned during the past several months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter really thinking\nabout it, even though we were disappointed with the way last season ended, a\nlot of us realized how grateful we should be to have this kind of opportunity,\u201d\nshe said. \u201cWe got to come to school and play basketball while getting our education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett hopes she can\npass on that knowledge of basketball \u2013 and life \u2013 to younger players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just enjoy being\naround the game, whether playing or coaching or being in the stands as a fan,\u201d\nshe said. \u201cWith coaching, it\u2019s fun see the flip side of what I\u2019ve been\naccustomed to as a player. I look forward to bringing what I\u2019ve learned and\nexperienced and hopefully help the current team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett has started\nmore games (116) than any other player in FHSU women\u2019s basketball history, and\nshe is one of only 21 who have scored more than 1,000 career points. She moved\nup to ninth on the list her senior year and finished her career with 1,393\npoints. A 6-foot guard, Kacey also ranks second on the Tigers\u2019 all-time list\nfor career 3-pointers made (176).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennett, a three-time\nAll-MIAA pick and a finalist for the MIAA Winter Student-Athlete-of-the-Year\nAward this past year, was a standout in the classroom, too. She was a three-time recipient of the MIAA\nScholar-Athlete Award, given to individuals with All-MIAA honors and a\ncumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher in the same year. She made the MIAA Academic\nHonor Roll all four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Kennett said her\ngoal is to help the current players succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be the first one\nto rebound for them, make up some drills,\u201d she said, \u201cwhatever it takes to help\nthem improve their game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of all, Kennett\nwants to impress on the players the importance of enjoying the moment.\n\n\u201cI think you have to embrace the opportunity,\neven if it\u2019s not exactly where you want to be at that moment,\u201d she said. \u201cYour\ncollege career moves so fast. You blink, and it\u2019s over.\u201d \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Kacey Kennett, a stalwart on the Fort Hays State University women\u2019s basketball team the past four years, is back. No, she didn\u2019t… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,3395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-womens-basketball-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/kennett20kacey20returns20NEWS1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57260,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57258\/revisions\/57260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}