PreParing To Serve WiTh eyeS Wide oPen

Marshall School graduate eager to face challenges of West Point

By Andrea Novel Buck

Aleksie Rengel’s drive and determination can be summed up in her quest to do pull-ups.

It began the summer of 2017. “I’ve never been great at the flexed arm hang or pull-ups,” she said. So, in preparation for her application to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., which

~ Aleksie Rengel

includes a physical aptitude exam, she began working on that. She did push-ups, worked out on lateral pull-down and pull-up assist machines at Snap Fitness, and used a pull-up bar multiple times a day. She achieved her first about 1½ months later. “It was the best feeling ever to get that first pull-up,” she said.

By the end of that summer, she could do two. A year later, she could do four.

Aleksie received an appointment to the Class of 2022 at West Point on April 20. She reported for basic training on July 2, joining nearly 1,300 other new Cadets. Her tuition, room and board, medical and dental care for the next four years will be free, repaid with five years of service as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army.

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Army vs. Air Force

Her father, Jeff, was active duty Air Force most of her life, serving two tours in Afghanistan. He now serves in the 148th Air National Guard. The family moved around a lot — Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio. Her mother, Tammi, hails from Superior, and Jeff from Hermantown. They moved back home, to Duluth, when Aleksie was in the fourth grade.

Aleksie started thinking about a military career in sixth grade.

Her love of volleyball distracted her a bit from the idea in high school. She played five years on Marshall’s varsity team, co-captain her junior and senior years, and on a Minnesota North club team that placed third at Nationals her sophomore year. She considered going to college on a volleyball scholarship.

“This was an elite team, and a special team,” her Minnesota North Coach Christyn May said. Aleksie was the team’s libero, next to setter, an important position that May described as the quarterback of the defensive team. Aleksie was on court the entire game. She was a positive playmaker, served aggressively, ran balls down, controlled hard attacks at her, said May, an assistant volleyball coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “She was recruited and could have played at any level of college volleyball.”

But one summer day between her sophomore and junior year, it clicked.

“I want to serve my country,” Aleksie said. “I think being able to protect your country and fight for the rights we have is important and something really special.”

She applied to West Point and to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. After touring both, she