Alex Kiess is one of the seniors on Wittenberg Women’s Basketball team. She hails from Edon, Ohio, which is close to Toledo. She also serves as one of five captains on the team this year and rocks the jersey number 22.
Kiess is majoring in Exercise Science. She fell in love with Exercise Science because of how the body and medicine work together to improve the way we live. This can be training athletically or trying to recover from an injury. Kiess was introduced to exercise by playing basketball, volleyball and softball growing up.
Kiess feel in love with the game of basketball at the very young age of two, because of her dad who was a high school basketball coach. Because of this, she lived in the gym and became a gym rat. Kiess describes playing basketball at Wittenberg as, “the most fun, eye opening.”
“I enjoy having another family on campus, enjoyed traveling to different places [and] having the opportunity to get better every day,” Kiess said.
Outside of playing basketball, Kiess works in the HPER. She stays focused on athletics and academics. Short and simply, she loves being a scholar-athlete. Her favorite memory so far playing basketball was having the opportunity to travel in Australia. The basketball team played against multiple semi-pro teams, who she enjoyed competing against. Outside of basketball, the team had chance to tour the Sydney Opera house, walk the streets of downtown Sydney, Melbourne and take some time to relax at Bondi beach. Kiess has also enjoyed traveling to new places like Chicago and New Jersey.
Kiess’s favorite team to play against is any school during their Code Red games, which is often the hardest team the girls play against. The thing she is going to miss the most after graduating is living so close to all her friends.
While studying exercise science Kiess said that her favorite class is Strength and Conditioning taught by Cory Everts, who is Wittenberg’s strength and conditioning coach. This class taught her the right and wrong methods of lifting weights. She has used this information during basketball when she is going through a hard workout which involves lifting weights. Strength and conditioning is a huge passion for Kiess, she is currently working on becoming a certified personal trainer by the time she graduates in May of 2019.
After graduating from Wittenberg, Kiess wants to earn some money before pursuing a masters in Kinesiology or Exercise Physiology. Her career dream is to become an Exercise Psychologist and specialize in Cardiac Rehabilitation.
Kiess’ advice to current and future Wittenberg students is to “never take anything for granted, make the most out of your time here at Wittenberg.”
