When a basketball player is her high school’s all-time leading scorer and she has been a three-year starter at the Division III college level, it sounds strange saying she may pass too much.

For Hayfield grad Leslie Wilson, Wartburg College’s junior starting forward, that’s probably the case.

While Wilson has plenty of offensive skills, she’s always looked to find her teammates first, and at Wartburg in Waverly, Iowa, she’s excelled as a defensive stopper. Hitting jup shots may draw cheers from the crowd, but Wilson would rather stop someone else from scoring.

“I look at defense being really important in college,” Wilson said. “I look at my role on defense, and if I get points, that’s great, but if I don’t, I’m fine with hopefully getting a win.”

Wilson — Hayfield’s all-time leading scorer with 1,418 points — averaged 4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 52 percent from the field this past season for the knights.

She was voted Warburg’s Rookie of the Year as a freshman and the team’s Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore.

She’s also seen Warburg’s win total increase with each passing season. The Knights won their first 14 games this past season for the best start in school history, but they lost their first tournament game and finished with a 21-5 record.

“I think we just peaked at the wrong time in the season,” she said.

“With Wartburg graduating some of its top scorers this spring, Wilson will have plenty to say about when the Knights peak next season as she will be asked to step up as a scorer.

“I’ve always heard from coaches that I’m unselfish,” Wilson said. “I’m looking to be a little more selfish (my senior year) so I do score, and I don’t care as much about missing shots or what my shooting percentage is. I’m hoping to score more each game and keep playing a good defensive game.”

If she wants to rediscover her scoring roots, Wilson doesn’t have to look too far back. It was just three years ago that she was the starting point of her offense. that was back when she wore the blue and gold and played for a high school with an enrollment of just 257.

It was at Hayfield where Wilson learned how to win. After the Vikings missed state by one game her junior year, the squad advanced to state and finished fourth in 2008. They gave Class ‘AA’ state champ Albany a run for its money in a semifinal loss that was decided in the last minute.

Even after playing in front of about 800 fans every night in a state-of-the-art arena at Wartburg, which has an enrollment of about 2,000 students, Wilson still looks back to the state tournament in high school where she played at Williams Arena and Target Center.

That Vikings team captured the heart of Hayfield as most of the town came to watch them play on the state’s biggest stage.

“I still think back to state,” Wilson said. “I remember how fun it actually was, and maybe I took it for granted a little bit when we did go, but that’s definitely what I look back to. It was a great feeling.”

A different game

Wilson tries to make an annual trip back to Hayfield to watch the Vikings play, and it’s often eye-opening to her how different the high school game looks now.

What she once thought was tough pressure defense just doesn’t quite as intimidating after she’s seen the intense defenses college teams have to offer.

“It’s so different going back and seeing how slow the style of play is,” she said. “You don’t realize that until you play college basketball. But it’s fun to watch the ones who used to be little (when I was there) out there scoring.”

Soon after she got to Wartburg, Wilson found out the differences between high school and college sports. Quite simply, the workload is tripled and the competition is much tougher.

As soon as she arrived on campus, Wilson was lifting weights three days a week and playing games twice a week — and that was in the offseason.

Couple with late nights on the road during season play, it can be a lot for a college freshman to take in. The thing that got to her the most was the size of the court and the crowd that circled it. After playing in front of a couple-hundred fans in high school, Wilson was now a key player in front of almost 1,000 onlookers.

“I was nervous as a freshman. Playing on a bigger floor doesn’t seem like much, but it is,” she said. “The level of play is also cranked up a few notches.”

By the time she was a sophomore, Wilson was over her jitters, and she’s now back to having fun during games.

Academic athlete

While keeping up on the court, Wilson has also kept up with her studies. She’s a business major but plans to go into nursing. She’s proud she made the IIAC All-Academic Team by earning a GPA of 3.5 or better this past season.

All the time she’s spent on school and basketball has helped Wilson build a work ethic and that can’t hurt her when she moves on to the working world.

“It’s stressful at times, but it’s worth it,” Wilson said. “It pushes us, and it’s hard being a student athlete. I think that will push me and get me ready for the workforce.”

It has taken a lot of hard work for Wilson to keep up with school and basketball and she credits that will to her family — which includes a grandpa and couse who played college basketball.

In the rare spare time she does have, Wilson stays active by playing volleyball and tennis. Sometimes she’s hanging out with her teammates, who she also spends countless hours on the court with it.

It’s the closeness of the Wartburg squad that has kept it competitve over the last few years.

“I like working with my teammates and getting better; it’s a lot of work, but it’ll pay off.” she said.

For an unselfish scorer looking to rediscover her offense — that hard work should make a big difference.

— Story was originally published in the Summer 2011 edition of Southern Minnesota Magazine.