Photo by: Brent Hugo
Project North Star
12/18/2019 12:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Features
By: Josh Liddick, Lehigh Sports Communications
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On Saturday, the Lehigh women's basketball team travels to back to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota. For six Mountain Hawks, this matchup hits close to home – literally. The Minnesota to Lehigh connection has been strong for the last four years, but the process in getting these student-athletes to Bethlehem stretches much further and much longer.
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It's no secret what senior guard Hannah Hedstrom means to this program, as her academic and athletic success over the years has shown exactly what it takes to be a Lehigh student-athlete. Her road to getting to this prestigious university was one that seemed normal, but a lot went into the high school state champion becoming the first Minnesota basketball player to commit to Lehigh, unknowingly sparking a long lineage of the same athletically gifted, academically driven-caliber player.
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"Hannah played on a highly competitive EYBL AAU basketball club in Minnesota, North Tartan," said head coach Sue Troyan. "She was also a high school AP scholar, so we knew she was looking for a school that would offer her the opportunities of strong academics and highly competitive basketball. She was looking at a number of Ivy League schools, but the scholarship became a differentiating factor for her when looking at Lehigh."
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It only took a weekend visit to the Lehigh Valley to convince Hedstrom that Lehigh was where she was meant to be.
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"We watched her play in an AAU tournament in the spring and then she did an official visit right after that," said associate head coach Glenn Rigney. "There were aspects of Lehigh that felt home to her even though she was going to travel away to go to school. Hannah actually ended up committing to us the day that she returned home from her visit. She was here Friday through Sunday, flew home and called later that afternoon to commit. She had found what she was looking for in her mind."
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Hedstrom herself agrees that it was that one weekend in Bethlehem spending time with team that made her decision easy that she wanted to commit her college career to be a member of the Lehigh women's basketball program.
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"Mae Williams '18 was my host for that weekend and I really connected with her and just felt like it was a good place for me to be," said Hedstrom. "In general, the recruiting process was nice but I was ready for it to be over too. I didn't feel the need to have to go and look at a bunch of other places. I had a gut feeling, so I went with it."
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One of the main draws of Lehigh in the recruiting process actually stems from the state of Minnesota itself, as the University of Minnesota is currently the lone Division I institution in the entire state. Playing Big Ten basketball is tough for a lot of student-athletes there, as just one native Minnesotan currently belongs to the Golden Gopher roster. That, along with rigorous and rewarding academic success played a big role in Hedstrom committing to Lehigh, eventually getting five other current Mountain Hawks to commit as well.
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"Athletically, Minnesota has some very strong high school girls basketball in the state, it also has very strong academic high schools that place a heavy emphasis on the STEM fields such as engineering and pre-medicine," Troyan said. "Given these two factors combined with the fact that there is only one Division I college in the state (U of Minn.), we as a coaching staff felt it could be an area that would be good to target as a large amount of Division I prospects end up going out of state for their basketball experience. Most of our players who have come from Minnesota are either studying engineering (Walker, Grothaus, Harvey) or Pre-medicine (Hedstrom, Sexe).
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"I think we've taken the approach that 'you can have it all' in terms of choosing a major and studying what you want to study at Lehigh, we will not limit our players in this area. It's our role to help our players manage their experience so they can excel at everything they do."
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This isn't the first time that Troyan and her coaching staff has had success recruiting in a particular area that resulted in multiple high-caliber student-athletes, as about a decade has passed since those individuals made a championship impact on the Lehigh program. That recruiting philosophy seems to have carried over to the present when talking about the Minnesota connection.
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"About 10 years ago, we had made similar recruiting inroads into the state of Ohio. Most of our league followed us there, so we began to look at other geographic pockets where we felt like we could make a similar impact," said Troyan. "Our Ohio kids won two league championships, so recruiting in geographic pockets has been successful in the past for our program. Part of the reason Minnesota has been successful is the relationships we have developed with coaches in the area and the fact that our Minnesota kids are having a great experience at Lehigh both in the classroom and on the basketball court."
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It didn't take long for the Lehigh experience to catch on with other players as Mariah Sexe, Megan Walker, Emma Grothaus, Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger each committed to Lehigh in the years following. While Hedstrom will leave Lehigh at the end of 2020 and forge a new path, she will leave a legacy as the first and certainly not the last Mountain Hawk from the state of Minnesota.
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"It's been a lot of fun just to see how the connection has grown and people in the Minnesota basketball community now understand what Lehigh is now and can put it on a map," Hedstrom said. "That's been really fun, but more importantly, just having girls that I knew of or I've gotten to know so much better from being teammates that have a similar background and have a love for the state of Minnesota with me too has been really fun.
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"It's just fun that there's a pipeline there now and our coaches have built relationships with a lot of the programs, both AAU and high school, in Minnesota. That will be fun to see as I graduate and the years go on, how that continues. But I know that in general, the types of players you get out of Minnesota and the people, are a great fit for Lehigh, so I hope that continues."
Â
There are a lot of factors to consider when selecting a college as a high school athlete looking to play basketball at a Division I institution, but for years Lehigh has offered the total package, which has been an intriguing option to the players from the state of Minnesota that they couldn't see themselves get anywhere else.
Â
"We have had a lot of support over the years from the AAU programs," Rigney said. "They understand that the players who have come to Lehigh have had such a great experience academically, socially, on the court and just developing as a person. So I think they see and hear back from the players in the program about what the experience has been and they obviously hear that from players who go to other schools as well.
Â
"I also think the continuity of our coaching staff has really helped because it hasn't changed tremendously over the years, so the players know they are coming into a situation similar to what previous people had. For our Minnesota players especially, it all goes back to the fact that there is one Division I school in the state and academically, the girls have been so strong, they have done extremely well as a group in that area and are being very successful. The high schools in Minnesota prepare players exceptionally well for college."
Â
For Sexe and Hedstrom, Saturday will be the second time they will play in at the Barn against Minnesota in the last three seasons with Lehigh. But for the six rostered players from the state of Minnesota as a whole, just being able to play the game they love in front of the people they love is a dream come true and can be a big advantage in the recruiting process when considering a school like Lehigh.
Â
"The players on our team and the names are familiar by a lot of people over there, especially since they won state championships and were highly sought after," Rigney said. "Obviously a lot of our recruits will be at this game just as Frannie, Megan and Emma did was when they we were there last time."
Â
Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger are the most recent class of Minnesotans to don the Brown and White, but won't be the last with another set to come in the Class of 2024. There's no reason to believe that she won't be the last either, as Lehigh has become an official destination for plenty of Minnesota women's basketball players who want this particular experience.
Â
"I wouldn't necessarily say it played a lot into it, but I think there' something to say about how attractive Lehigh is to Minnesota players," said Harvey. "It has the academics, it has the sports, it has a beautiful campus and it has all four seasons which is what I think those dynamics, we're all kind of looking for. It offers a lot. From Minnesota where there aren't many options, it was our best one."
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On Saturday, the Lehigh women's basketball team travels to back to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota. For six Mountain Hawks, this matchup hits close to home – literally. The Minnesota to Lehigh connection has been strong for the last four years, but the process in getting these student-athletes to Bethlehem stretches much further and much longer.
Â
It's no secret what senior guard Hannah Hedstrom means to this program, as her academic and athletic success over the years has shown exactly what it takes to be a Lehigh student-athlete. Her road to getting to this prestigious university was one that seemed normal, but a lot went into the high school state champion becoming the first Minnesota basketball player to commit to Lehigh, unknowingly sparking a long lineage of the same athletically gifted, academically driven-caliber player.
Â
"Hannah played on a highly competitive EYBL AAU basketball club in Minnesota, North Tartan," said head coach Sue Troyan. "She was also a high school AP scholar, so we knew she was looking for a school that would offer her the opportunities of strong academics and highly competitive basketball. She was looking at a number of Ivy League schools, but the scholarship became a differentiating factor for her when looking at Lehigh."
Â
It only took a weekend visit to the Lehigh Valley to convince Hedstrom that Lehigh was where she was meant to be.
Â
"We watched her play in an AAU tournament in the spring and then she did an official visit right after that," said associate head coach Glenn Rigney. "There were aspects of Lehigh that felt home to her even though she was going to travel away to go to school. Hannah actually ended up committing to us the day that she returned home from her visit. She was here Friday through Sunday, flew home and called later that afternoon to commit. She had found what she was looking for in her mind."
Â
Hedstrom herself agrees that it was that one weekend in Bethlehem spending time with team that made her decision easy that she wanted to commit her college career to be a member of the Lehigh women's basketball program.
Â
"Mae Williams '18 was my host for that weekend and I really connected with her and just felt like it was a good place for me to be," said Hedstrom. "In general, the recruiting process was nice but I was ready for it to be over too. I didn't feel the need to have to go and look at a bunch of other places. I had a gut feeling, so I went with it."
Â
One of the main draws of Lehigh in the recruiting process actually stems from the state of Minnesota itself, as the University of Minnesota is currently the lone Division I institution in the entire state. Playing Big Ten basketball is tough for a lot of student-athletes there, as just one native Minnesotan currently belongs to the Golden Gopher roster. That, along with rigorous and rewarding academic success played a big role in Hedstrom committing to Lehigh, eventually getting five other current Mountain Hawks to commit as well.
Â
"Athletically, Minnesota has some very strong high school girls basketball in the state, it also has very strong academic high schools that place a heavy emphasis on the STEM fields such as engineering and pre-medicine," Troyan said. "Given these two factors combined with the fact that there is only one Division I college in the state (U of Minn.), we as a coaching staff felt it could be an area that would be good to target as a large amount of Division I prospects end up going out of state for their basketball experience. Most of our players who have come from Minnesota are either studying engineering (Walker, Grothaus, Harvey) or Pre-medicine (Hedstrom, Sexe).
Â
"I think we've taken the approach that 'you can have it all' in terms of choosing a major and studying what you want to study at Lehigh, we will not limit our players in this area. It's our role to help our players manage their experience so they can excel at everything they do."
Â
This isn't the first time that Troyan and her coaching staff has had success recruiting in a particular area that resulted in multiple high-caliber student-athletes, as about a decade has passed since those individuals made a championship impact on the Lehigh program. That recruiting philosophy seems to have carried over to the present when talking about the Minnesota connection.
Â
"About 10 years ago, we had made similar recruiting inroads into the state of Ohio. Most of our league followed us there, so we began to look at other geographic pockets where we felt like we could make a similar impact," said Troyan. "Our Ohio kids won two league championships, so recruiting in geographic pockets has been successful in the past for our program. Part of the reason Minnesota has been successful is the relationships we have developed with coaches in the area and the fact that our Minnesota kids are having a great experience at Lehigh both in the classroom and on the basketball court."
Â
It didn't take long for the Lehigh experience to catch on with other players as Mariah Sexe, Megan Walker, Emma Grothaus, Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger each committed to Lehigh in the years following. While Hedstrom will leave Lehigh at the end of 2020 and forge a new path, she will leave a legacy as the first and certainly not the last Mountain Hawk from the state of Minnesota.
Â
"It's been a lot of fun just to see how the connection has grown and people in the Minnesota basketball community now understand what Lehigh is now and can put it on a map," Hedstrom said. "That's been really fun, but more importantly, just having girls that I knew of or I've gotten to know so much better from being teammates that have a similar background and have a love for the state of Minnesota with me too has been really fun.
Â
"It's just fun that there's a pipeline there now and our coaches have built relationships with a lot of the programs, both AAU and high school, in Minnesota. That will be fun to see as I graduate and the years go on, how that continues. But I know that in general, the types of players you get out of Minnesota and the people, are a great fit for Lehigh, so I hope that continues."
Â
There are a lot of factors to consider when selecting a college as a high school athlete looking to play basketball at a Division I institution, but for years Lehigh has offered the total package, which has been an intriguing option to the players from the state of Minnesota that they couldn't see themselves get anywhere else.
Â
"We have had a lot of support over the years from the AAU programs," Rigney said. "They understand that the players who have come to Lehigh have had such a great experience academically, socially, on the court and just developing as a person. So I think they see and hear back from the players in the program about what the experience has been and they obviously hear that from players who go to other schools as well.
Â
"I also think the continuity of our coaching staff has really helped because it hasn't changed tremendously over the years, so the players know they are coming into a situation similar to what previous people had. For our Minnesota players especially, it all goes back to the fact that there is one Division I school in the state and academically, the girls have been so strong, they have done extremely well as a group in that area and are being very successful. The high schools in Minnesota prepare players exceptionally well for college."
Â
For Sexe and Hedstrom, Saturday will be the second time they will play in at the Barn against Minnesota in the last three seasons with Lehigh. But for the six rostered players from the state of Minnesota as a whole, just being able to play the game they love in front of the people they love is a dream come true and can be a big advantage in the recruiting process when considering a school like Lehigh.
Â
"The players on our team and the names are familiar by a lot of people over there, especially since they won state championships and were highly sought after," Rigney said. "Obviously a lot of our recruits will be at this game just as Frannie, Megan and Emma did was when they we were there last time."
Â
Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger are the most recent class of Minnesotans to don the Brown and White, but won't be the last with another set to come in the Class of 2024. There's no reason to believe that she won't be the last either, as Lehigh has become an official destination for plenty of Minnesota women's basketball players who want this particular experience.
Â
"I wouldn't necessarily say it played a lot into it, but I think there' something to say about how attractive Lehigh is to Minnesota players," said Harvey. "It has the academics, it has the sports, it has a beautiful campus and it has all four seasons which is what I think those dynamics, we're all kind of looking for. It offers a lot. From Minnesota where there aren't many options, it was our best one."
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Players Mentioned
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