Kelsey Rees grew up in a basketball family. Both of her parents, Paul Rees and Nicole Guy-Rees, played professionally and her father also played for the Australian national team.

Her older sister, Darcy, played for the University of Washington, paving the way for Kelsey Rees to follow her from Australia to the United States. Kelsey Rees spent three seasons at Utah before transferring this past offseason to Oregon State.

Coach Scott Rueck has installed Rees in the starting lineup at the beginning of the year and she is part of a formidable frontcourt rotation for the Beavers alongside sophomores Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner.

At 6-foot-5, Rees anchors the Oregon State defense and has shown the ability to stretch the floor offensively, knocking down a 3-pointer during the Beavers’ win over Villanova.

“Kelsey brings a lot of experience and wisdom to this group. Most of our team is fairly young, certainly we’re new together, a lot of us. Half our team is new to our locker room. So her words and wisdom have carried a lot of weight with the group,” Rueck said.

Rees said it wasn’t an easy decision to enter the transfer portal and leave a team which she helped win a Pac-12 Conference title.

“I thought about it for a long time and really had to weigh out the pros and cons,” Rees said. “Obviously, I had a really good experience at Utah and I was finishing up my degree. For me, I felt basketball-wise, I wanted something different and my goal has always been and continues to be, to eventually, when I’m done with college, play on the Australian Olympic team. And in order to reach that I felt I needed to go somewhere else.”

As she looked at her options, Oregon State quickly rose to the top of her list. She had played against the Beavers and saw first-hand how Rueck uses post players in his offense. She knew the program had a strong history of player development, with players moving on to play in professional leagues all over the world.

Rees was also interested in helping the team get back to the NCAA tournament after falling short the past couple of seasons. So far, Rees has played a bigger role on the team than anyone could have imagined. She logged a career-high 34 minutes in the win over Villanova, scoring 11 points with seven rebounds.

One area Rees has worked hard to improve is mobility and ability to defend the whole floor. She said it’s partly physical, but mostly mental.

“You have to be able to guard the position you want to play. It’s always been something I’ve worked on throughout my whole career is being able to move quickly and more than anything I think defense, especially guarding on the perimeter, is anticipation,” Rees said. “I’ve learned to be good at knowing what they’re going to do.”

Corvallis is a long way from her home in Adelaide, but Rees adapted to that long ago. Her family made the tough choice to let her leave home at the age of 15 to attend the national Centre of Excellence in Canberra. That decision has paid off for Rees as she has been a part of the Australian national program for years, starting with the U16 team. She was a member of the Australian squad that won silver at the 2021 U19 World Cup.

Rees is one of four international players on the Oregon State roster, along with Martha Pietsch (Germany), Dominika Paurova (Czech Republic) and Susana Yepes (Colombia). Rees said they have a lot in common as they experience a different culture and pursue their basketball dreams far away from their family and friends.

It was also helpful for Rees that the program had an international trip this year. Not long after she arrived on campus the team began training for the Italy trip, where they played a series of games. The players also had plenty of time for sightseeing and team dinners.

“It made me feel part of the team from the jump. I think without that it takes a while to settle in because while you see everyone so much on the basketball court, there’s not as much time for bonding over things outside of basketball. But with the Italy trip, you got that experience straightaway,” Rees said.

During her two years at Utah, Rees earned degrees in Family, Community and Human Development, and in Health, Society and Policy. At Oregon State, she is pursuing a masters degree in bioengineering. When her playing days are over she would like to go into health care, perhaps in the field of prosthetics.

But she hopes that is a long way down the road.

“I want to play basketball for a long time and then have to figure this out many years in the future,” Rees said.