CHAMPIONSHIP ASCENSION

Volleyball Inspires Perpetual Purpose

But his program’s strength lies in its ability to retain talented athletes willing to wait their turn, and, just like Kalli’s matchpoint mix-up, incredible Jimmie talent sort of just sneaks onto the court in the form of sophomores and juniors.

In a time of NCAA transfer portals and NIL (name, image, likeness) deals, the grass has never been greener for championship-caliber college athletes looking for increased playing time or more financial footing. Hegerle, however, has found the sports team magic elixir.

“There’s something about the culture of our players and what we do that allows a player to surrender their own individual ambitions and be part of something that they get great value out of,” Hegerle explained. “At the end of our bench and on our JV is where you learn to be a Jimmie volleyball player, and they all go through it.” This past fall, seven former JV players were brought up and thrust onto the varsity court. Those players were opposite hitter Logan Sherman, middles Darienne Johnson and Lexi Olson, defensive specialists Megan Moser and Grace Hegerle (the coach’s daughter), and setters Paige Oswald and Tenley Buddenhagen.

Those seven athletes – four juniors and three sophomores – were the majority of 12 Jimmies who played in the 2022 national championship and won the whole thing.

Finding Their Way

The Jimmies began the season by losing a second consecutive match for the first time in nearly four years.

Outmatched at the service line in a 3-1 loss to Eastern Oregon at the Big Sky Volleyball Challenge in Butte, Montana, the Jimmies realized there’d be a hill to climb. When combined with the national tournament semifinal loss to Park University (Mo.) that ended the 2021 season, it marked back-to-back UJ losses for the first time since Jamestown joined the GPAC in 2018.

“I think at the beginning we never thought that we would be in position to be top in the conference, much less top in the country,” Kalli said. “So, we went through a lot of growing pains.”

Covid eligibility saw the fifth-year return of both Kalli, an opposite hitter/setter, and All-American outside hitter

Anna Holen ’22. The two would arguably turn in the best offensive performances of their careers in 2022, with Kalli returning to setting duties for the first time since transferring to UJ from North Dakota State in 2020.

(Fun fact: Holen’s standing vertical leap is the largest UJ strength coach Ryder Weischedel has ever measured for a female athlete. Standing at 5-foot-7, Anna’s jump of 31.5 inches places her in the top 10 percent of world-class female athletes by some standards and is better than athletes Weischedel has coached at NCAA Division I’s Baylor and Tulsa.)

But defensively is where the Jimmies would rise above the rest of the country over the course of the season, a charge led by Anna’s younger sister, junior libero Ellie Holen.

“I think when you’re winning by defense and serve-receive, it becomes a war of attrition,” coach Hegerle said. “And you saw that in how many matches went five (sets) this year.”

The Jimmies played in a total of eight, fiveset matches, and would win seven of them, including coming back from a 2-0 match deficit at conference foe Northwestern College on Oct. 22 to improve to 25-2.

But by then, the season had already meant

“I think the biggest turning point of our season was when we were at Dordt and Karyn almost passed away,” Kalli said. “At that moment we just all came together.”

Karyn Holen not only coached high school volleyball, but her eight children – seven of whom attended UJ – have kept her involved

“For years I would joke with people that I was certain to die in a gymnasium,” said Karyn, the mother of Anna and Ellie. “The sunrise holds a special meaning for me these

As it turned out, volleyball saved her life. For no apparent reason, other than a possible severe reaction to a sulfur antibiotic she began taking the day before, Karyn’s heart stopped beating on Sept. 17 as she watched her daughters and the Jimmies play Dordt

Only by the quick action of a handful of amazing health care professionals seated around her is Karyn still alive. An AED was used to shock her heart back to life – not once, but twice – and CPR was performed on her for nine minutes, all before paramedics

Those in the medical world would later tell Karyn her chances of survival were less than 5 percent. Anna, who graduated with a degree in nursing from UJ last spring, first witnessed the commotion between sets.

“I remember some people on my team glancing up (into the stands) and looking back at me and Ellie,” Anna recalled. “I turned around … I just saw that it was my mom’s feet. Coming from a medical background, I knew it wasn’t good, but I still had a lot of faith in

NAIA All-American Athletes under Coach Hegerle

Anna Holen 2022, ’21, ’20

Kalli Hegerle 2022, ’21, ’20

Ellie Holen 2022

Lexi Olson 2022

Corina Huff 2021

Britta Knudson 2019

Isabel Wedell 2019

Julina Niemeier 2018

Haley Glasoe 2017, ’16

Madison Wendel 2017, ’15

Elise Peterson 2017

Nicole Warren 2016, ’15

Morgan Hensch 2016

Heather Bachman 2015

Naomi Walther 2014

Sarah Becker 2013, ’12, ’11

Katie Lee 2012

Shannon Fee 2010

Kayla Fee 2009

Ali Edwards 2009

Jimmie Women’s Volleyball All-Conference Athletes under Coach Hegerle

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Great Plains Athletic Conference

Kalli Hegerle 2022, ’21, ’20

Anna Holen 2022, ’21, ’20, ’19, ’18

Ellie Holen 2022, ’21

Darienne Johnson 2022

Lexi Olson 2022

Logan Sherman 2022

Corina Huff 2021, ’20, ’19

Jayla Ritter 2021, ’20

Jackie Meiklejohn 2021, ’20

Aleah Zieske 2022, ’21

Megan Gaffaney 2021

Sydney Ellingson 2020, ’19

Taylor Sabinash 2020

Britta Knudson 2019, ’18

Isabel Wedell 2019, ’18

Jordan Thomas 2019

Julina Niemeier 2018

Kennedy Conzemius 2018

The match was suspended, Karyn was flown to Fargo where an ICD was placed in her heart, and she’d miraculously make a full recovery. As she recuperated, with Anna and Ellie close by and away from the team, the Jimmies earned what coach Hegerle now argues might be the most significant win of his career.

Four days following the emergency, and without two of the country’s best players, the Jimmies were able to defeat 18th-ranked Dakota Wesleyan by a deciding fifth set, 1512. Dennis Holen, Karyn’s husband, lovingly refused to allow Karyn’s heart to be put through such an early test and prevented her from tuning into the game from her hospital bed.

“Actually, at that point I was pretty compliant,” Karyn laughed. “He watched it on his phone. All of a sudden, he jumped out of his chair and fist pumped, so I knew we won.”

With mom on the mend, Anna and Ellie returned to the Jimmies the following match.

“That was a big, big watershed moment for us,” coach Hegerle said. “It was a moment of, hey, this program is bigger than just a couple players, No. 1.

“No. 2, understand we’re a lot deeper than we’ve been in the past. And, No. 3, this is bigger than volleyball.”

Karyn and her family, which account for a solid portion of Jimmie volleyball fans both at home and on the road, were in Sioux City to witness the national championship, which might not have been possible for the Jimmies to achieve had they not been.

Jimmie Women’s Volleyball All-Conference Athletes under Coach Hegerle

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North Star Athletic Association

Haley Glasoe 2017, ‘16

Madison Wendel 2017, ‘16, ‘15

Morgan Hensch 2017, ‘16

Elise Peterson 2017

Isabel Wedell 2017

Josie Beckman 2017

Nicole Warren 2016, ‘15

Heather Bachman 2016, ‘15

Alaina Brown 2015, ‘14, ‘13

Kaitlin Anderson 2015, ‘14, ‘13

Naomi Walther 2014

Amanda Kramer 2014

Janna Johnson 2014, ‘13

Sarah Becker 2013

Kelsey Deragisch 2013

Jimmie Women’s Volleyball All-Conference Athletes under Coach Hegerle

………………………………………………

Association of Independent Institutions

Katie Zent 2012, ‘11

Sarah Becker 2012, ‘11

Katie Lee 2012, ‘11

Kaitlyn Rogalla ‘12

Dakota Athletic Conference

Jada Meiklejohn 2011

Katie Zent 2011, ‘10 ‘09

Katie Lee 2011

Sarah Becker 2011, ‘10

Shannon Fee 2010, ‘09

Sam Revering 2010, ‘09

Krysten Williams 2010

Kayla Fee 2009

Ali Edwards 2009

“God was so good,” Karyn said. “I was just so happy for the girls and all I could think about is how thankful I was to be there, because I almost wasn’t.”

Playing To Inspire

Coach Hegerle and Midland University (Neb.) women’s volleyball coach Paul Giesselmann are respected throughout the NAIA for the character and success of their programs.

But they’re not the best at air hockey.

Challenged to a friendly duel by a pair of Giesselmann’s players during the NAIA Student-Athlete Experience held at Tilt Studio (a large arcade) on Nov. 29 in Sioux City, the moment was videotaped by GPAC commissioner Corey Westra and later shared on Twitter.

The two GPAC rival coaches were seen working in tandem, while sharing laughs and high-fives, six days before Jamestown and Midland would scratch and claw to five sets in the NAIA semifinals.

“It looked like Jon and I were doing really well,” Giesselmann said. “But the truth is, we got smoked by those two girls.”

Midland was only the second team to defeat the eventual 37-2 Jimmies during the season. The setback at Harold Newman Arena in early October marked UJ’s lone five-set loss.

Giesselmann, a volleyball coach of 34 years, has a 6-5 lifetime record against Hegerle-led UJ volleyball. A solid accomplishment, considering Hegerle owns a sparkling .762 winning percentage with the orange and black.

“I’ve got tremendous respect for Jon, and, for me, I always look at how coaches treat their players when things are going great and when they’re not going great,” Giesselmann said. “It’s easy as a coach when things are always bouncing your way, but I think you really find out the true character of a person when they face adversity and how they handle things.”

On Dec. 5 – the night before he’d be swamped by congratulatory text messaging – Hegerle never seemed concerned with what the scoreboard read while the Jimmies battled Giesselmann’s Warriors in what was UJ’s fourth consecutive trip to the nation’s semifinals.

The Warriors ended the Jimmies’ season in the very same match two seasons prior.

Instead, Hegerle’s in-game message to his team was to make absolutely sure that no matter what happened inside the Tyson

Events Center that night, everyone invested would come away inspired, including the young women who first attended his youth camps, then played on his JV, and stood before him now.

“When you make it too much about winning and losing, and you feel like you’re not winning, it’s tough to dig out of that,” explained Hegerle, whose Jimmies dropped the fourth set 25-18 before winning the fifth 15-12. “I remember saying to our team, ‘You guys, I think we’re confused. We’re acting like this is about winning and losing and it’s not, it’s about inspiring people.’

“That’s kinda been our motto.”

It’s a motto that produces the types of moments rival coaches can’t help but respect.

“I always feel like whenever we play Jon’s team, they’re going to bring out the best in my team,” Giesselmann said. “Obviously, we’re trying to win a national title, but that team made a couple more plays than we did, and they earned it.”