Thomas More University women’s basketball head coach Jeff Hans attended most of Kentucky Fusion’s girls basketball games last summer.
Kendall Sterling, the lone Indiana native on Fusion’s roster based in northern Kentucky just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, thought Hans was mostly there to watch three of her teammates who already had offers from Thomas More.
But it turned out the play of Sterling piqued the interest of Hans and his coaching staff. Sterling attended a team camp at Thomas More last July and took an official visit last August, where she received an official offer from the program.
Last Tuesday, Sterling officially announced her commitment to Thomas More to continue her basketball career.
“He would always come to all of our games,” Sterling said. “Three of my other teammates have offers from Thomas More, as well. He would always come to our games, but I thought it was just to watch them. I never knew they were there to watch me.”
Last year was Sterling’s first season playing for Kentucky Fusion on the AAU scene, and she’s currently playing with them this summer, as well.
A lot of times, Fusion would practice at Thomas More, so her coach has a good relationship with Hans.
After texting and emailing with other college coaches, Sterling felt like Thomas More would be the best fit for her.
“I really like the location of the school and the size of the school,” Sterling said. “I really like the coach. It’s a winning program. They moved up to DII last year, and they won the DIII national championship and an NAIA national championship, so it’s just a really good program.”
Thomas More went 31-4 last season and lost in the championship finals of the NAIA national tournament.
Sterling has been the leading scorer for the Owls’ girls basketball program the past two seasons. Basketball has always been Sterling’s top sport, and she never truly realized how good she was until she got older, and that’s when she started to think playing at the next level was a possibility.
“Basketball has always been my favorite sport,” she said. “People always told me I was good, but about like seventh grade, I figured I could probably do it.”
But before Sterling joins Thomas More’s program, she still has her senior season left at Seymour High School.
She’s happy she was able to commit to a college before her senior year got underway.
“The fact I was able to make this decision, it was a big stress reliever,” she said. “Now, throughout July, I can focus on just playing.”
Since Sterling has joined Seymour’s program as a freshman, the Owls have yet to finish a season under .500. Seymour has won sectional games in back-to-back seasons, and Sterling feels like the program is heading in a positive direction.
“I feel like we’re going in a good direction,” she said. “We’ve had a few bumps the last couple of weeks, but hopefully, once everyone gets healthy again, it will be a good indicator of what we can do.”
The Owls will be hosting the Seymour Shootout on Thursday at Seymour Middle School, and they will compete in multiple shootouts across the state the rest of this summer.
Sterling has made big jumps as a player each season, and she knows the areas she wants to get better at heading into her final season.
“I need to be more aggressive and shoot more,” she said. “Overall, just bring everyone together and have a good season.”