Thomas Kleinschnitz: Nomination Letter to V Foundation

To: Joyce Aschenbrenner, Vice President, Special Projects V Foundation

 Nominee: Thomas Kleinschnitz, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Thomas Kleinschnitz transferred to Franciscan University of Steubenville with plans of achieving success in the classroom, as a member of the university’s rugby team, and as a guard on the Franciscan University Barons basketball team. But those plans radically changed during Thomas’s last rugby match of the 2009 fall season.

Thomas first fell in love with rugby at the University of Florida.  As he watched a rugby match, the connection clicked and he hoped to at least practice with the team; Thomas went on to play UF rugby that semester.  Basketball is in Thomas’s blood: since the age of five, Thomas competed in youth basketball leagues and AAU travel leagues, going on to earn the all-time record of points scored at his high school.  While attending Warner Southern College (now Warner University), Thomas played on their NAIA DII basketball team nationally ranked seventeenth and seventh his freshman and sophomore year, respectively.

Franciscan University was the perfect fit for him when he decided to transfer to a university that would challenge him academically and spiritually – the school just so happened to have rugby and basketball too.

While playing his last rugby match of the season, Thomas hurt his eye in an apparently typical rugby collision – he actually suffered an eye fracture.  In a second tackle, Thomas collided head-to-head with a fellow teammate and unknowingly split his head due to the first fracture.  Thomas immediately got up after the tackle and completed two more tackles. The referee stopped Thomas, noticing his eye, and asked him the color of the opponent’s jerseys. Thomas replied that they were orange – the jerseys were actually black. He was carried off the field and rushed to the emergency room.  Two skull fractures, five fractures around his right orbital and an acute hematoma later, the doctors decided to let the bones heal and see where they lined up to avoid a risky surgery that would cost Thomas the majority of his eyesight in the right eye. He was told by every doctor his family consulted he would lose a significant amount of memory and should leave school for rehabilitation.  Thomas was also told it would be a minimum of a year before he could think about sports again, with the possibility of never stepping foot on a court or field again.  The doctors said it was nothing short of a miracle that Thomas’s bones healed in place and he avoided the surgery. For the first month he was to only rest, but by the third week Thomas was given clearance to lift and run again. Thomas started to read again, too, miraculously suffering no memory loss.

Thomas was cleared to play basketball for the 2010 spring semester.  Wearing a protective header-band, Thomas averages 12.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for this young, DIII provisional team.  He has made a significant impact not only on the team but on the school; thus becoming a good model for all future students.  His compelling drive, integrity, intelligence, and personality has greatly influenced the work of all those that Thomas has come in contact with throughout his time here at Franciscan University.