Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
• Where: Warrensburg, Mo.
UNO center Kylee Rinehart suffered a high-ankle sprain in preseason camp.
Big deal.
After all the injuries the sixth-year senior has gone through in her three years on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus, pain and limited mobility for several weeks are mere nuisances.
“That's just not going to stop me,” she said.
Rinehart was granted a sixth season of eligibility after missing last season with a concussion. Two seasons ago, after transferring from Casper (Wyo.) College, she suffered a torn knee ligament three days before coming to campus, then suffered a torn shoulder labrum in the team's first exhibition game.
Rinehart played despite the painful injury, appearing in 19 games and starting four times before the 6-footer shut it down in mid-February.
“She brings a toughness factor that we have to have,” UNO coach Patty Patton Shearer said. “One of the telling signs for our success is going to be our moxie. Not just toughness, but toughness against adversity. She's the one player that everyone knows has that. Everyone else needs to match that, and we need her on the floor to carry us through.”
Rinehart, who had six points and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench in UNO's season-opening win over Dana, returns to the floor today and Saturday as the Mavericks play in a two-day classic at Central Missouri. The Mavs will face Minnesota-Duluth today at 12:30 p.m., then face Texas A&M-Kingsville at noon Saturday.
Rinehart's 2007 knee injury, which didn't require surgery, came in a moment that goes a long ways toward explaining the origin of her toughness.
She got kicked by a horse.
“I was working cows,” she said. “I caught a calf and jumped off (the horse) to grab him, and the colt got scared and kicked me in the side of the leg.”
A native of Highmore, S.D., Rinehart is the sister of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association star Jake Rinehart. She originally participated in basketball and rodeo at Casper College, then redshirted in basketball her second year.
“Rodeo and basketball as a freshman was tough,” Rinehart said. “I was only able to give half my attention to each sport.”
Rinehart said she didn't really consider a professional rodeo career.
“All they have for women (professionally) is barrel-racing,” she said. “I've done that, but I was never that good at it. Breakaway roping was more my event.”
Rinehart's concussion last year was another tough-luck injury.
“Two days before that, we were in a rebounding drill and girls were crying (in pain),” Rinehart said. “But then this was the freakiest deal ever, in a noncontact conditioning drill. My best friend (former Mav guard Mary Brown) caught me under the chin and knocked me out — I guess. I don't remember.”
Rinehart said it has been frustrating to be at less than her best since coming to UNO.
“It's hard to sit and watch and not be a part of it,” she said. “You're supposed to come in and make a difference, and you have to just chill.
“But I've been able to perceive a lot of different coaches' perspectives and to see how we react as a team by sitting there (observing).”
On a young UNO team in which five of the 10 players are freshmen, Rinehart may feel sometimes she has as much in common with the coaching staff as her teammates.
“I'm kind of like the grandma on the team,” Rinehart said. “I was in kindergarten when most of these guys were born.”
UNO NOTES: Minnesota-Duluth (1-1) was 16-12 last season and was fifth in the Northern Sun conference. Senior guard Jheri Booker is the NSIC's preseason most valuable player. ... Texas A&M-Kingsville (1-0) was 16-11 last year and fifth in the South Division of the Lone Star Conference.
Contact the writer:
444-1027, rob.white@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
