We approach a beautiful home tucked quietly into the rolling Flint Hills of Riley County, just off a fairway at Colbert Hills Golf Course. Native stone wraps the exterior, grounding it firmly in Kansas, while inside, warm wood imported from Italy and reclaimed brick from Chicago tell a tale of vision and craftsmanship. It’s peaceful. Still. Almost cinematic.
And then - the front door opens.
Four young kids dart out of the house in a blur of energy. A blue rubber ball bounces somewhere out of sight, and laughter echoes down the driveway. There is movement everywhere, and life here is full, loud, and joyful. Beric Allen, Rhett Douglas, Trek Kyle, and Briar Marie fill the space, with Grandma Kelly close behind, keeping pace with it all. At the center of the whirlwind, the children’s mother stands calm, smiling, and somehow in control of the chaos. Shalin Klein was built for this moment, and it shows.
There is a certain cadence to the Klein household, one shaped by constant motion, and a steady sense of purpose. It mirrors the life she grew up in, one where sports were not just something you watched, but something you lived. Long before she was Shalin Klein, she was Shalin Spani, the daughter of Stacey and Kansas State & Kansas City Chiefs legend Gary Spani. In Kansas City, Lee’s Summit to be exact, football was not an event, but part of the fabric of everyday life.
Her earliest memories are not of bright lights or big plays, but of riding alongside her dad on a golf cart, counting rows of tailgate chairs before Chiefs games. He had retired before she was born, but the game still surrounded her. It was outside the friendly confines of Arrowhead Stadium where she first learned what it meant to contribute. It all felt normal. It was simply the life she knew.
As the oldest of five girls, Shalin learned early how to lead, not by seeking it, but by living it. Responsibility was simply part of who she was. That carried into sports, where her path looked a little different than most. She did not start playing basketball until age 12, giving her a late start by today’s standards, but also a healthy one. There was no rush to specialize, no pressure to force the process. She just competed, fell in love with the game, and kept getting better. By the time Kansas State came calling, she had already developed the toughness and discipline that would define so much of her journey.
Adversity, though, arrived early. Before she ever stepped onto campus, she tore her ACL. More injuries followed. Surgeries piled up. At one point, the complications became serious enough to threaten far more than her playing career. Still, she kept going. The game remained part of her story, but it was no longer the whole story. What those years gave her was something deeper: resilience, and the understanding that meaningful growth often happens far from the spotlight.
That mindset had been shaped long before college. It was formed through sports, guided by her parents, and rooted in two simple expectations: attitude & effort. Control what you can. Trust the rest. It is a philosophy that now shows up in every part of her life, far beyond the hardwood and gridiron.
While much of the attention surrounding the Kleins centers on Collin’s coaching return to Kansas State, Shalin has been quietly building something of her own. Opening this fall is the RISE Academy, which stands for Redeem. Instruct. Serve. Equip. The idea began not as a business plan, but as a question: What is the best way to educate our kids, and what does that actually look like for a family like theirs? From there, it flourished.
Drawing from both her and Collin’s backgrounds, and a desire to create something that fits real life, she built a hybrid model that blends classroom structure with the flexibility of home. What started small has expanded quickly and now includes a new 15,000-square-foot space in the former American Institute of Baking building on north Manhattan Avenue, a sign of both demand and belief in the model.
In many ways, it mirrors the same philosophy now taking shape inside the Kansas State football program: Family Business. It is the phrase Collin Klein has brought with him into his role as head coach, a reflection of how he views the program. Not just a team, but something shared, something invested in, something built together. Inside their home, that idea is not a slogan. It is reality. Everything is connected. The kids, the schedule, the seasons of life, the decisions they make, and the way they show up for each other.
Alongside it, another phrase has started to take hold. New Old School. It is a balance of respecting tradition while building something forward, holding onto what matters while still adapting to what comes next. That balance shows up clearly in Shalin’s world, in how she raises the kids, in how she approaches business, and in how she carries the legacy of where she came from while building something entirely her own.
Her relationship with Collin reflects that same clarity. Married in 2012, their story did not unfold slowly, but it was never built on impulse. It was intentional from the beginning, rooted in shared values, mutual understanding, and a sense that when something is right, you do not overcomplicate it. Life since then has moved fast. Different stops. Different opportunities. Decisions that required trust more than certainty. At one point, they left Manhattan knowing there was no guarantee they would return. When the call came, everything aligned.
For Collin, it was a dream realized. For Shalin, it was a return to a place layered with meaning, where her family’s story began, where her own journey took shape, and where she now finds herself again in a new season.
Inside their home, outside noise fades quickly. There are no titles here, only two parents, four kids, grandma, and a pace that rarely slows down. It’s a household built on love, faith, structure, and a competitiveness that still shows up in the smallest moments.
Because even as everything around her grows: new roles, new expectations, and a bigger stage, the core of who Shalin Klein is has not shifted. It still looks like leadership without needing recognition, resilience shaped through adversity, and unwavering faith that steadies everything else. Inside that home in the Flint Hills, where the interior noise never really stops and clocks move lighting fast, life comes together in a way that feels both remarkable and completely ordinary at the same time.7ly;
At the end of the day, it really is just family business, built the new old school way.
“Family Business is not just what they say in the building. It is how we live our lives every day.”