Published: Nov. 30, 2013
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
Natalie Geidel had one plan. Her volleyball coach at West
Bend East, Colleen Hasse, had a different plan.
Going into her junior season, Geidel, an outside hitter, was
ready to make an impact on a team buzzing with talent and potential.
“I was really comfortable hitting at the outside position,”
Geidel said.
Then, leading up to the start of the 2011 season, Hasse
pulled her budding star aside and told her she was going to take her out of her
comfort zone.
“From the moment I knew Natalie was coming in as a freshman,
I had a plan for her,” Hasse said. “My long-term goal was to see her as a
middle (hitter).
“For the first few years (of varsity), I had to get her used
to the higher intensity.”
The revelation by the coach to Geidel didn’t sit well at
first.
“I was kind of mad,” Geidel said. “When she told me I was
going to the middle, I wasn’t looking forward to it.”
She even asked and begged her coach: Is there another
option?
“I was kind of stuck there,” Geidel said.
The move paid off for East’s volleyball team and allowed
Geidel to take her game to another level.
Geidel was voted the 2013 Daily News All-Area Girls
Volleyball Player of the Year by area coaches and the Daily News sports staff.
“I’m psyched,” she said. “It’s a huge honor because of all
the work I’ve put into the program for four years and the dedication to the
team. It paid off.”
This season, Geidel emerged as one of the stars on a team
that won 40 matches and boasted nine seniors, including six returning starters.
She had 316 kills this season, with a 52.6 kill percentage.
She averaged 2.6 kills per game and had 71 blocks.
Geidel was also named the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference
Player of the Year this offseason and second-team All-State by the state
coaches association.
As a junior, Geidel was honorable mention All-State in her
first year as a middle.
“I was really surprised when I found out I got All-state; my
jaw almost dropped,” she said of her junior year nod. “I think that boosted my
confidence to a whole new level.”
She played at a new level this season.
“She had the drive,” Hasse said about why she believed
Geidel was best suited to be a middle. “(Middle hitters) have to have the
personality and the never-die attitude and can’t get frustrated.”
“That speaks to her as an athlete,” Hasse added. “She’s got a
lot of goals. When she sets her mind to it, she really accomplishes a lot of
it. It didn’t surprise me she was able to be effective.”
Geidel and Hasse had to work through some frustration early
in Geidel’s junior season.
For about three or four years, Geidel has been battling
asthma. She was able to work through it on the volleyball court as a freshman
and sophomore. Being an outside hitter, that player has an area it has to
cover. As a middle, a player must be mobile, able to go from left to right or vice
versa quickly, covering a lot more ground.
For Geidel, going through those drills at practice was
exhausting.
“At first, it was very, very hard,” Geidel said. “We’d do a
couple drills and I would be so out of breath.”
It was a tough spot for Geidel and Hasse. As a three-sport
athlete, also competing in basketball and softball, Geidel didn’t want to quit
out of the fear of letting her teammates down. Nor did she want them to think
she was getting special treatment.
As for Hasse, she didn’t want anything to happen to Geidel,
while still trying to groom Geidel into the player she believed she could be.
“You always have to look at the health of the athletes,”
Hasse said. “It was really getting to know what she could handle. I will push
them (in practice), but she had to tell me when it was too much.
“It took me getting to know her and understand the kind of
individual she was.”
Both weren’t ready to give up, though.
Geidel’s physical stamina eventually came around and got to
a point where she could compete at a high level.
Then the fun part: playing the position against people other
than teammates.
“I really had to change to my mindset,” Geidel said. “It was
something I had to work on.”
“The middle is definitely the most difficult position in the
front row,” Hasse said. “She took it in stride. She watched and she listened.”
Geidel was also a bit undersized for the position, often
going up against girls who were either taller or had longer arms than she did.
“It was a huge adjustment,” Geidel said. “I really had to
adjust my shot.”
“It’s a faster game,” Hasse said. “You’re blocking the whole
net.”
As she got used to the position, she developed into a more
well-rounded player, which made her an appealing draw for college coaches.
Before last season, she signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball
at Viterbo University in La Crosse.
Hasse didn’t want Geidel to look to the other side of the
net and be intimidated.
“I wanted her to be the one that people would say Natalie’s
the one that’s good,” Hasse said.
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