Richard Klein is always happy to have his feet back on Canadian soil.
For much of the last four years he has been in an unfamiliar land, attending Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan., and playing for the Baker men's soccer team. And, up until this season, Klein was the only Canuck in the lineup of the Wildcats, who compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). This year, he was finally joined by Amer Didic, a freshman midfielder from Edmonton.
"It's been pretty funny," said the 21-year-old Klein, who is home for the Christmas holidays. "I kind of like it, being a foreigner. It's not something I'm used to but people are so cool about it. It's like a conversation starter -- 'Oh, you're from Canada? No way! What's it like up there?'
"I'm really making some good friends and family down there but I always miss home."
Klein is a 2009 graduate of D.P. Todd secondary school. With help from Sipho Sibiya, former technical director of the Prince George Youth Soccer Association, he landed a scholarship to Baker University right out of high school and has grown into a leader of the Wildcats. Playing soccer in the States has helped Klein take his game to heights even he couldn't have imagined.
"The level of play [in the NAIA] is pretty amazing," said Klein, a six-foot-one, 195-pound forward. "A lot of people have a misunderstanding about NAIA. They're like, 'Oh, it's not NCAA so it's probably not that high of a level,' but I would compare us to Division 2 [of the NCAA] and we can definitely compete with a bunch of Division 1 teams. NAIA is primarily smaller, private schools so there are a lot of international players. A lot of the teams we play will have two Americans and all the rest will be Brazilian or South American or European. It's pretty cool. It's definitely been an amazing experience and I've definitely improved a lot."
On an individual basis, Klein scored six goals this season and was selected as a third-team all-star in the Heart of America Athletic Conference. He was also a standout in the classroom. In his exercise science program, which will lead him into a career in physiotherapy, he posted a 3.85 grade point average and was later presented with an NAIA Scholar Athlete award.
The Wildcats began the season as the second-ranked team in the NAIA but, for various reasons, struggled to an overall record of 8-5-5. In the conference playoffs, they were knocked out in the semifinals when they lost 2-1 on penalty kicks to Missouri Valley.
"Compared to last season, this season was pretty disappointing," Klein said. "Last year, our record was around 22-1 and we made it to the Final Four of the national tournament. This year, we started off poorly and then we started to come back but we were unlucky at the end. It was too bad. We've always been a pretty solid program but, on the national stage, we'd never really been ranked so high so we had this pressure that we're not really used to. We've always kind of been the underdogs and I think that's why last season we did so well. Everyone took us for granted and we were just surprising everyone."
If everything had gone according to schedule, 2012 would have been Klein's final year of playing eligibility. But, because he missed the entire 2010 season while he was recovering from a severe case of heat stroke, he'll be back in uniform for the re-tooling Wildcats in 2013.
"We're losing 10 or 11 seniors this year and eight of those guys were starters, but next season is going to be good," he said. "It's probably going to be a building year but we have a lot of young talent coming in. It's going to be up to me and the other seniors to kind of lead the team."
Klein will also graduate from Baker next year and will then look for a spot in a physiotherapy program, perhaps at the University of Alberta or UBC.
"I'm going to apply to a lot of places and we'll see," he said.
