Recruiting Report: Casey Kleemeier (2019)
Winterset was featured as a “Team to Watch” in our recently released “Way Too Early 3A Rankings,” and 5-foot-10 point guard Casey Kleemeier is a big reason why.
Last season, as a sophomore, Kleemeier was very good, averaging 15.5 points per game while leading his team in assists and steals.
That, in addition to his performance this offseason with Kingdom Hoops, has helped him generate some initial college interest.
“As far as recruitment goes, there’s not a whole lot. I’ve talked to Grand View a little bit, and was invited to go play with their guys. I’ve also camped at Augustana, and have been invited to Wayne State and Upper Iowa,” said Kleemeier.
“Not a whole lot of strong recruitment, but it’s starting to trickle in.”
Admittedly undersized, Kleemeier says that just makes him work more to get done what he wants to get done of the floor.
“Being a 5’10 guard, I’m a little undersized and I have to work a little harder to do everything,” he said. “So I take a lot of pride in being able to do everything and attack the basket, go up strong and be a big-bodied guard.”
That big body he boasts is good on the gridiron too, where Kleemeier also excels for the Huskies. But he insists hoops is still his number one sport.
“Basketball is definitely my number one right now. I’m not completely shutting out football. If that could take me somewhere else; I don’t know,” he said. “Basketball is my favorite, though.”
Last season, Kleemeier was 40 percent from the floor and 35 percent from deep. He’s been working since the completion of that season to hopefully improve upon those numbers.
“I’ve been working a lot to improve my shot. I’ll be able to get to the basket easier if the opponent has respect for my shot,” said Kleemeier.
“During the summer, I worked really hard to improve my shot. I spent a lot of time in the gym shooting 3s. And I was playing a lot of point guard and two-guard.”
He added: “I also like to play defense and be tough on that end of the floor to, to give me a nice, balanced skill-set.”
He’ll take that diversified skill-set into his junior season here in just a few months — high expectations and all.
“Going into my junior season I’ll have the ball in my hands the vast majority of the time, and will have to make smart decisions and keep turnovers down,” said Kleemeier.
“We feel really good about how we competed this summer and how we played together. We feel we can compete with the top teams in or conference, and should be able to compete for a conference title.”