To the people who don’t know Kyle Odister, he is a soft spoken, shy college freshman, excited about playing basketball in a collegiate setting. To the family, friends and teammates who know him, however, he is the energetic, “fun-loving guy” who idolizes his brother and listens to “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus before games.
“We hear it in the locker room, we hear it on the bus. He loves that song,” teammate Ryan Darling said. “It just gets him pumped up or something. Whenever he has his headphones on we’re always like, ‘Hey, you listening to Miley right now?'”
Noddin’ his head like “Yeah!” and movin’ his hips like “Yeah!”, Odister is fitting right into the land of collegiate sports. The freshman point guard has worked his way to a starting position for the Cal Poly men’s basketball team this season, by stepping up to the expectations of a coach not afraid to push his athletes.
“One of the most difficult positions in basketball, in college basketball, is to be away from home, be a freshman, be a starting point guard for a coach that’s very demanding,” head coach Joe Callero said. “I think he’s handling it well right now.
As a starting freshman on a team of juniors and seniors, Odister has become a “verbal leader” on the court when it comes to calling out plays for the Mustang defense. However, Callero said one thing the coaching staff tries not to do is evaluate a player based on his year or position, but by his performance in practice and his ability to grasp what the coaches are teaching. Callero said Odister is getting more confident as the season continues and is handling the demands of a collegiate athlete well.
“So far, he’s met up to the challenge (but) there’s no limits to improvement and there’s no limits to how much better Kyle can get. There’s no limit to how much better our team could get,” Callero said.
The challenge of competitive basketball isn’t a new concept for Odister. The 6′ 0″ shooter has been playing on travel teams since the age of 11. Entering into his senior year of high school, he was ranked as the No. 114 point guard in the nation by ESPN. At the time, the network praised Odister’s jump shot as “textbook” and his landing as “extremely smooth.” In his last high school basketball season, Odister transferred to New Hampton School in New Hampton, New Hampshire, where he competed against athletes already signed to top basketball schools.
“I had a dude on my team who was 20, so my whole team was like already committed to schools. They go to Oral Roberts, Tulane, and Michigan,” Odister said. “And we played guys going to Connecticut, and Xavier, so it was basically like a college atmosphere already when I played in high school.”
But, Odister’s basketball career started long before he was playing with Division 1 picks. Odister’s mom, Karen, laughs and said her youngest son practically grew up on the basketball bench, “hanging on” to the leg of his older brother as a child. In between being used as a “babe magnet” by his older brother, Odister was often seen with a basketball in his hands, watching his brother play in travel leagues before joining one himself.
“He’s been sitting on the bench since he was an infant,” Karen said. “He’s always played basketball, and he’s always been drawn more to basketball than he has anything else. We kind of had a sense that he was going to play basketball somewhere.”
Like most athletes, Odister started playing many sports at a young age before discovering his favorite. His older brother Deshawn remembers Odister was six years old when he first played in a church league with carpet as the court and hoops that stood six feet high.
“What I remember is him getting the rebound and going coast to coast every single time,” Deshawn said. “And I just remember myself being on the sidelines and telling him to ‘Dunk it, dunk it!’ He was having a blast.”
Off the court, Odister is the teammate and friend not afraid to make jokes, do “little dances” or play tricks on family members, something Karen said he was notorious for when he was younger. He enjoys watching “Law and Order: SVU” with his teammate and roommate, Ryan Pembleton, is a “shoe fanatic,” and is quietly excited about the prospect of making the All-Freshman Conference team this year. Like many students though, he is living the college freshman life. He eats dinner quickly when his parents come to visit so he can leave to hangout with friends, calls his mom once a week so she knows he’s doing okay, and has a family that is proud of him for his work ethic and determination to achieve his goals.
“I’m proud of him and I think that with his hard work and determination that he’s showing right now in his first year, the sky’s the limit for him if he just keeps with that work ethic and listening to the coaching staff,” Deshawn said.
He’s a Cal Poly Mustang athlete, a freshman student navigating the ways of dorm life, and a “positive addition” to the men’s basketball family.
“He’s stepped up and hit lots of end-of-the-shot-clock shots that are high pressure that most people, whether a freshman or whether a senior, will take a great amount of focus,” Darling said. “He’s able to stay focused and make those when we need him. I think he’ll be a future leader and he’s starting to develop that leadership with the confidence that he plays with.”
But if you ask Odister, he’s just a guy who’s working to achieve his goals.
“I just want to make it to the (NCAA) tournament,” he said. “At least get to the Sweet 16 or something. I’m trying to go play in the big lights, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”