Diller-Odell’s Heidemann Commits to Iowa State
Addi Heidemann faced a couple obstacles when it came to trying to become a highly-sought after volleyball recruit. First, she was from a tiny town and school and, second, she always had to play “up” in club volleyball because she…
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Continue ReadingAddi Heidemann faced a couple obstacles when it came to trying to become a highly-sought after volleyball recruit. First, she was from a tiny town and school and, second, she always had to play “up” in club volleyball because she was “old” for her age, meaning she always had to compete against older kids and made it harder to stand out.
But, the Diller-Odell sophomore turned those two potential negatives into positives and parlayed it all into an opportunity to play at Iowa State.
Heidemann was offered by the Cyclones late this summer but waiting until late in November to commit, and she couldn’t be more excited about her future.
“Obviously Iowa State is in Big 12 and that’s kind of been my goal, to play in a Power Five conference. And it’s only 4 hours away from home and they have awesome facilities and the coaches are amazing,” Heidemann said. “I’ll be training under two former Nebraska setters that were All-Americans and that will be awesome for my setting abilities. They have a really good volleyball program and have always been a strong team, so that’s exciting.”
Heidemann helped guide Diller-Odell to the Class D-1 state tournament this fall, averaging 9.2 assists per set (734 overall) while also contributing 112 kills, 194 digs and 68 aces. While in middle school, Heidemann had a chance to watch – and sometimes play with – former Griffin All-State setter Madison Jurgens, now the starting setter at South Dakota.
That experience helped Heidemann realize that playing for a Class D school didn’t have to be a negative.
“In seventh grade I got a chance to come up and played with varsity at a camp in the summer because they were missing a girl,” Heidemann said. “And I set, and I set with Madison Jurgens and I knew I wanted to be like her.
“Obviously I watched her all through her high school years and she comes from a little town like Odell and she made something of herself, so I was like, ‘this is possible, I can do this too.’ She was a great leader and great player.”
Heidemann, who plays her club volleyball for VCNebraska, was strongly encouraged to become a setter early in her time at VCN because of her hands and her athletic ability. She admits that at first she wasn’t super receptive to the idea, but looks back now on that decision as a blessing. She also said having to play “up” during club has been one as well, even though she didn’t think so at first.
“At first I didn’t think it was a blessing. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not going to be able to compete with these older girls.’ After playing with them, it pushes me way harder and I have to step up and extra level to be where they are at and to be able to compete with them,” Heidemann said. “It’s been great, because it’s pushed me so much harder as an athlete and helped my leadership skills, even though I was a year younger than all of them.”
The summer before her freshman year of high school, Heidemann played on the VCNebraska 15 Elite team at AAU Nationals and after that got her first piece of recruiting mail from the University of Wyoming, which happens to be where her father played football.
“That was neat,” Heidemann said. “That gave me hop that the recruiting stuff is real and that it happens.”
Then, about this time last year Heidemann got proactive.
“Before club season last year, I emailed a bunch of colleges and sent them my video and asked them to watch me,” she said. “Then, at President’s Day, that’s when it really kicked off. I got a lot of interest there.”
It was following President’s Day last year that the communications started with Iowa State, Cyclone assistant Jen Malcolm also had an exposure camp at VCNebraska last season, which really strengthed their relationship. It was shortly after she went to Iowa State’s camp this summer that they extended her an invitation to be a Cyclone.
She was also getting interest and offers from schools such as North Dakota State, Virginia, Wyoming, Montana State, Pepperdine and South Dakota State.
Ultimately, though, she said Iowa State was clearly the place she wanted to be and she’s excited to be able to just focus on getting better the next couple years instead of stressing about the recruiting process.
“It’s awesome to commit as a sophomore and put all the college and recruiting stuff behind me and focus on getting better,” Heidemann said. “Now, knowing what ISU wants me to work on, I can just focus improving myself to be the best I can so when I get to Iowa State I’m the best that I can be.”