Colorado’s Kindyll Wetta, left, and Oregon’s Ula Chamberlin during the first round of the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (Powers Imagery/Pac-12)
This offseason, Kindyll Wetta has learned that she’s no fan of saltwater showers and that she can survive for a few weeks in France without knowing the language.
Most importantly, Wetta has reinforced the thought that she’s ready for life after basketball – but only after making the most of her final season with the Colorado Buffaloes.
“I’ve always been a big advocate of, like, basketball does not define me and I don’t have goals to play pro after college,” said Wetta, a rising senior for the CU women’s team. “This will be my last year playing basketball. I know that a lot of people struggle with finding who they are and their identity after sport and I really wanted to do my best to make sure I have other things.”
An integral part of three consecutive NCAA Tournament teams – including Sweet 16 appearances the last two years – Wetta is eager for a dramatically different season upcoming for the Buffs. But, first, she took a rare opportunity to study abroad.
“(Head coach JR Payne) was so incredibly supportive,” Wetta said. “And (athletic director) Rick George was supportive and LaTonya Watson, my academic coordinator, was supportive and they helped it all come into fruition. It was like the best time of my life. It was so fun.”
For three weeks in May, Wetta joined a group of fellow CU students for a business program in France, where she stayed with a host family that only spoke French.
“I love experiencing new cultures,” Wetta said. “We would sit down and have hour-long dinners with (the host family), and they’re only speaking French. It was so cool to see how, like, I could pick up maybe five words and still communicate by my body language, my facial expressions and my five words that I knew in French. They were incredible people.”
Wetta said she’s already signed up for a French class for the fall and that she’ll “definitely” return to visit her host family.
That was followed by a biology program in June in the Turks and Caicos Islands – an experience that could not have been more different than France.
“We were staying at a research center in South Turks and so it was, like, basically nobody there,” said Wetta, who was joined by students from around the country. “There was a little town, but we could only take one freshwater shower a week. The rest was saltwater showers.
“It was like camping on steroids, basically, which was a good experience too, because you learn how little you actually need to survive. … It’s still fun, and you can have fun with the group you’re with.”
Wetta, an integrative physiology major, also learned from that experience that biology isn’t her love, as she’d rather work with people.
Both experiences were memorable, though, as she inches closer to her post-basketball life, which includes plans for medical school.
“I also love school, too, and I’m not ready to give up the school part,” she said.
At the moment, she’s not quite ready to leave basketball.
For three years, she’s been with much of the same core group of players at CU and they’ve enjoyed a lot of success. But, only four of the 17 players from last year’s team are left. Wetta and fifth-year senior Frida Formann are the only players that have been in Boulder for more than a year.
“It’s uncharted territory because we’ve always had a lot of returners but I’m very excited,” Wetta said. “I think it’s gonna be a very fun experience, being able to build the kind of team and the kind of culture that we want going into … our last year playing basketball.”
Wetta, an elite defender and passer, has enjoyed her career and her teammates to this point, but there’s more excitement this year because she and Formann are leaders.
“Frida and I can kind of like shape this into the year that we want,” she said. “This year is going to turn out how we set the standard and how we end up leading this.
“There’s, like, no expectation going in. … Right now, we’re looking five yards ahead of us and we’re saying, ‘Let’s get everybody here. Let’s start team bonding. Let’s establish a standard, establish team norms.’ And if we can do that, I think that cultivates a very successful team and so everything else will fall into place.”
For Wetta, it’s already been a great year on and off the court. She’s setting herself up for life after basketball, is eager for her final year on the court and hasn’t second-guessed a decision to not pursue a pro career.
“No, I think I’m ready (to be done),” she said. “The only thing that has ever drawn me to play more basketball is playing overseas and getting to travel, but I know that I’ll be able to do that with my job and I’m just ready. My body is ready.
“But, I’m so incredibly excited for my last year and want to make the absolute most of it.”