On to the next level: LO seniors commit to play college hoops
Published 8:55 pm Friday, March 15, 2019
LEROY — LeRoy-Ostrander seniors Trey Hungerholt and Haley Hungerholt have been around basketball for much of their lives and they don’t plan on giving up the sport anytime soon.
Trey has made the commitment to play for Viterbo University, an NAIA school in La Crosse, Wisconsin and Haley is headed to Waldorf University, an NAIA school in Forest City, Iowa. Both Hungerholt’s will receive athletic and academic scholarships.
LeRoy-Ostrander senior Haley Hungerholt signs to play basektball at Waldorf University. Photo Provided
Trey and Haley are two of the family’s triplets and they’ve both been competing on the court since they were third-graders. They’ve been each others biggest cheerleaders over the past decade and they even played together on an AAU team one summer.
LeRoy-Ostrander senior Trey Hungerholt signs on to play basketball at Viterbo University recently. Photo Provided
Now they’ll be 165 miles apart from each other on different campuses.
“It was like a family competition for us,” Trey said. “We just compete against family records. Haley and I always played. My dad (Aaron) played and he was pretty good, so we started playing early and we picked it up right away.”
Trey finishes his basketball career as LO’s all-time leading scorer for boys with 1,772 career points and Haley finishes her career as L-O’s all-time leading scorer for girls with 2,507 career points.
The L-O girls had a bit of a rebound season as they went 7-18 overall this past season after going 1-26 overall in the previous season.
“Last year was hard. I wanted to win and I was working harder,” Haley said. “‘I’m ready to move on to the next level. I’ve been working on conditioning and shooting.”
LeRoy-Ostrander’s Trey Hungerholt comes off the corner during the first half against Blooming Prairie in a Section 1A playoff game Thursday night in LeRoy. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The L-O boys finished 19-8 overall this past season.
Aaron has coached Haley in basketball throughout most of her varsity career and he also served as L-O’s football coach, where Trey was the team’s quarterback. He’s seen Trey and Haley increase their work ethic as they prepare to play basketball at a higher level.
“It’s really settling into them where it’s more serious and they want to go get this. They’ve moved into the next phase to get to the college level,” Aaron said. “I think one thing that people don’t understand is how much time and effort these two have put in. They don’t get to where they are just by showing up and playing games. Their goal has been to play college basketball and it worked out for them. They ended up reaping the benefits of the hard work.”
Haley and Trey have served as motivators for each other throughout high school, and they also had inspiration from their cousins Cole, Clay Candace and Kali Olstad, who all played basketball for Planview-Elgin-Millville and went on to play at St. Paul-Concordia.
“We went to a lot of their games up in Concordia,” Aaron said. “Everything we do is based on their athletic schedules all year round. You get to the spring and your into AAU and camps. The family travels together all of the time.”
LeRoy-Ostrander’s Haley Hungerholt shoots over the defense of Rushford-Peterson in LeRoy Monday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
The Waldorf women’s team went 14-12 overall last season and Haley is expected to play the role of shooting guard, where she can contribute on offense. The Viterbo men’s basketball team went 11-13 overall last season and Trey will likely play the same role as he did with L-O, a guard who can handle the ball and score.
