Austin seniors commit to play for the Blue Devils
Published 7:38 pm Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Multiple players signed their national letters-of-intent with the Riverland Community College softball team Wednesday. Left to right: Taylar Larson of WEM, Allison Sharp of Cold Spring, Jordan Huntley of Austin, Shayla Berkner of Kenyon-Wanamingo, Jess Piel of Austin, Brandi Myers of Austin and Kayla Crowell of Hancock, Minn.. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Five Austin seniors have decided to stick around town and be teammates for a couple of more years at Riverland Community College Wednesday.
Austin senior softball players Jordan Huntley, Brandi Myers and Jess Piel and volleyball players Summer Maloney and Marissa Hart all signed their national letter-of-intent to compete for the Blue Devils next season.
Hart missed most of senior season with the Packer volleyball team due to a knee injury and she’s looking forward to playing volleyball again while starting her college education.
“I stay close to family, I save a lot of money and after the two years I’ll transfer to a four year school,” Hart said. “I just wanted to continue my volleyball career because I didn’t really get to play my senior year.”
The Riverland Community College volleyball team had players sign their letters-of-intent to play for the Blue Devils next year. Left to right: Allison Sharp of Cold Spring, Summer Maloney of Austin, Shayla Berkner of Kenyon-Wanamingo, Marissa Hart of Austin and Hope Landsman of Albert Lea. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Michelle Ihnen is the head softball and volleyball coach at RCC and she said the best way to build up both programs is to bring in local players. Ihnen was glad to see a few Austin athletes pick RCC.
“We’re looking forward to having a few more local kids and we hope that brings a few more fans out to the games,” Ihnen said. “We’re trying to keep kids at home and the education is very affordable here. We want to build a name for the school. I don’t think some people in the community even realize we have athletics out here.”
Maloney was drawn to play for RCC because she’s familiar with the team.
“A lot of my friends are here playing volleyball and we’ll have some fun playing together in college,” she said.
Myers, Huntley and Piel are just starting their senior season with the Packers, and they’re glad they’ll get to play together on the Blue Devils next spring. Myers is planning on studying law enforcement while playing for the Blue Devils, Piel is looking to have two fun years of softball with some familiar faces and Huntley is hoping the Blue Devils can field a competitive team the next two seasons.
“We can continue on being teammates and being a family. We can play with other players from other schools too,” Huntley said.
