Growing up, Michelle Klaja’s family thought she would go to a college far away from home. Between her and her older sister, Michelle is the more outgoing one. They all thought her sister would stay close to home and Michelle would leave. In fact, the exact opposite happened. Her older sister went to Montana for college, while Michelle stayed in Klamath Falls to attend Oregon Institute of Technology.
Michelle graduated from Henley High School in 2004. All through high school she didn’t want to stay in Klamath Falls. She also said she never really heard anything about OIT. She only heard about it through family friends that are professors here. Of course the OIT coaches were interested in her, but Michelle was looking elsewhere. Then, at the end of her junior hear of high school she tore her ACL while pole vaulting. At that instant, all her scholarships went out the window.
OIT was the only school that still had faith in her: “I think that shows a lot of character about the coaches here. They recognize talented athletes.” She wanted to continue sports in college, acting as a payoff from all her hard work and effort she had already put into it. She also knew she wanted to go into some kind of medical field, so OIT fit perfectly. She is currently working toward her degree in vascular technology.
Next July Michelle is going on her externship. She doesn’t know where she’s going yet, but said she is “freaking out about it” because vascular is one program that has a lot of east coast sites: Florida, the Bronx, Cleveland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. She would stay in Klamath Falls, especially to play her last year of volleyball (since she is a junior volleyball-wise), but that is not an option. She said the hospital is not busy enough for students to get eh experience that they need; there’s hardly enough to do their clinical rotations. Last year they only had two Oregon sites and Michelle is hoping to get one of those spots. She wants to stay in Oregon.
Because this is her last year of volleyball, she is treating it as her senior year. Since she was injured at the end of her junior year of high school, she was not able to play volleyball or basketball her last year. She’s really excited to have a “senior year” since she never had one. She didn’t get to play in one single game. She helped out with the teams, kind of like an assistant coach, but it wasn’t the same.
Michelle would technically be a senior this year volleyball-wise, except she had to sit out last year due to a knee injury. She tore her ACL while practicing hurdles her sophomore year of college. “That one was really disappointing” she said, “that was really devastating.” She had qualified for nationals in the heptathlon, the open javelin and the open high jump. It was one week before the national meet when it happened. She was ranked seventh in the nation for the heptathlon, and was looking toward top three with her most recent scores. “It’s like third times a charm, and it just didn’t hold out…I knew what I did right away [tore her ACL].”
Michelle came back this year and has been a driving force for the team. “This is one of the most talented and well-rounded teams” she said. “We have a deep bench. It is nice when someone’s having an off night because we can put someone else in there…the unity on the team is really really good. We all get along. I would like to think for the most part that the upperclassmen are being mentors for the freshman.”
Michelle thinks the best game of the season was when they beat Corban College in three: “it was that one game where everyone was enthusiastic and having fun playing and we were playing well and there were no lulls that put us behind. It was just one of those games that I’ll probably remember forever.”
Her favorite team to play is Southern Oregon University because “you get that hype to play them. They’re our rivals. You always know they’re a good game. You wake up that morning completely excited and the butterflies and everything…it’s just like gung-ho. I just love playing them!” On the contrary, she does not like to play Evergreen State. They only have six players and “it’s hard to play those teams that don’t match up well to you…you shouldn’t, but we play down to their level so it’s slow. You’re just waiting for it to end. You don’t get the adrenaline rush.”
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