Everything about Kaela Oakes from Basha High School in Chandler, Ariz., to Idaho State University has been unexpected. Sadly, the rest of her journey will be spent away from the comfort of a home crowd as Bengals fans witnessed Oakes’ last home game at Reed Gym.
The journey started when ISU head basketball coach Seton Sobolewski made a recruiting call to Oakes during her junior year in high school. Oakes had never even heard of ISU. Sobolewski recruited Oakes to bring the ball the court, run the offense and play solid defense.
On her recruiting visit to Pocatello she was hobbled by a sore ankle and was on crutches. Oakes recalls how everyone in Pocatello was so accommodating and how complete strangers would offer sympathy and assistance.
“Back home, where I’m from that doesn’t happen. There is such a sense of community here,” said Oakes.
“When we recruited her we didn’t think she was going to be much of a scorer, we thought she was going to be a good ball handler and a good defender,” said Sobolewski.
Sobolewski ended up recruiting a lot more than just a capable point guard; he ended up recruiting one of the most prolific scorers in ISU history.
Oakes became just the sixteenth player to score over 1,000 points. She is the second leading scorer on the team with 11.3 points per game while leading the team in assists.
Her scoring output is just a testament to how hard Oakes has had to work since she arrived at ISU. Some athletes are born scorers, but Oakes wasn’t born with that gift. Scoring is something she has had to work at every single day.
Not only did Oakes put in the time and effort to become a great scorer, she put in the time and effort to become a great student.
“She’s just someone who has a great attitude. She gives you everything she’s got and you yell at her to do more and she will always try,” said Sobolewski. “She’s a nursing student so she works 80 hours a week doing her practicum. She’s an amazing get for our program.”
When Oakes visited other schools they were not keen on one of their players taking on such a demanding academic workload and told Oakes that she would get her undergraduate in something else and enroll in nursing after she was done playing basketball.
The coaching staff and the nursing staff’s support of Oakes enrolling in the nursing program while playing basketball spurred her decision to come to ISU.
“The academics and your character goes much further than whatever you’ve done on the basketball court,” said Sobolewski.
The other schools were not out of their mind and were well within reason to be cautious about an athlete succeeding while pursuing such a demanding degree. Taking on such an academic workload and playing Division 1 basketball would overwhelm most players but Oakes is not like most players.
Not only has Oakes handled the tremendous workload and succeeded on the basketball court, she has excelled at it.
Oakes has been named a 2012-13 Senior CLASS Award finalist. Oakes is one of 60 women’s basketball players from the Division I level to be selected.
“Just to be nominated is pretty awesome. To be one of 60 out of all the Division I sports is amazing,” said Oakes.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and excel in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition.
“You don’t get nominated for just being a good student,” said Sobolewski. “It’s amazing how well-rounded she is and how much work she puts into helping out in the community.”
Oakes, with four other seniors, Abyee Maracigan, Taylor Floyd, Jessa Jeppesen and Ashleigh Vella, played their last game in front of their home crowd as they throttled Sacramento State last Saturday 81-61.
The Bengals have two more games on the road against Eastern Washington and Portland State University. While the season hasn’t gone the way we expected as far as wins, the Bengals will return to the Big Sky Conference Tournament on March 14 and nobody is going to want to have to face off against Oakes and the Bengals.
