D-C grad finds her niche coaching volleyball

On her first trip to Canyon, Texas, last spring, Dana Hanselmann watched West Texas A&M's volleyball team practice.

Watching a game she played for four years at Missouri's Truman State University helped Hanselmann decide what she wanted to do with her first two years after college.

"It was just practice," said Hanselmann, a Dundee-Crown graduate. "But I knew it was something I couldn't give up yet. My heart's still in it."

With Hanselmann as its graduate assistant coach, West Texas A&M and first-year head coach Jason Skoch -- who was Hanselmann's coach at Truman -- made it to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight earlier this month, where the Lady Buffs lost in the naitonal championship match, 3-0, to Concordia St. Paul (Minn.).

"People would always tell me, 'You'd be an amazing coach,' " Hanselmann said. "I wanted to see if I did want to coach or not. It was an excellent opportunity. I would've been a fool not to take it."

As a senior at Truman, Hanselmann was part of a team that advanced to the Elite Eight. When she arrived in St. Paul, Minn., with the Lady Buffs, she realized her new team was playing on the same court and staying in the same hotel as Truman did a year earlier.

"It was horrible deja vu," Hanselmann said. "I wanted to be on that court so bad."

Working for Skoch, with whom Hanselmann said she always had a strong relationship, allowed her to coach players on various skills, help with recruiting, and be involved in in-game coaching decisions such as substitutions for the Lady Buffs (39-4). 

"I've seen girls who I didn't even think would play (this season) become starters in the national championship," Hanselmann said. "That was very rewarding."

Hanselmann is pursuing a master's degree in sports & exercise science with an emphasis on sports management.

This spring, Hanselmann's studies will include working with West Texas A&M's sports marketing department. Though her coaching future remains uncertain, Hanselmann said she could see herself as a high school coach or a college athletic administrator.

But she has just one regret about her time on campus at West Texas A&M, which is located 15 miles south of Amarillo.

"I wish we could've (won) that last match," she said. 

Volleyball stars: Prairie Ridge grad Hillary Haen and Johnsburg grad Kate Nobilio were honored Dec. 16 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association as honorable mention all-Americans.

Haen, a junior setter at Illinois, was a first-team All-Big Ten player who helped Illinois to the Sweet 16 and a No. 10 ranking in this week's final AVCA poll. Haen ranked 16th nationally and second in the Big Ten with 11.42 assists per set.

Nobilio, a senior libero at Northwestern, became the first NU player to win the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year honor this season. Her 2,194 career digs is an all-time NU record and ranks second in conference history. 

Nobilio led the conference with 4.6 digs per set and posted 529 digs for the season, her fourth consecutive year of 500-plus digs.

Switch pays for Blanton: Richmond-Burton grad Jordan Blanton is off to an 8-1 start this season for Illinois' wrestling team after dropping from 184 pounds, where he wrestled last season, to 174 this season.

Blanton has five wins by fall, which ranks second on the team, and earned the No. 5 pre-ranking for Midlands in his weight class. Blanton is ranked ninth nationally this season.

Barry Bottino writes a weekly column and a blog about local college athletes for the Northwest Herald. Write to him at BarryOnCampus@hotmail.com and check out his On Campus blog at www.McHenryCountySports.com/blogs/oncampus.