By UMC Athletic Media Relations
This past weekend, the University of Minnesota Crookston volleyball program celebrated their five seniors who have meant a lot to the Golden Eagles. All the seniors have gone through a coaching change except one (Meli Rodriguez) and three have been in Crookston for five seasons.
One of those fifth-year seniors is middle hitter Kaitlin Sikkink. The St. Charles, Minn., native has seen a lot and gone through a lot during her time in Crookston.
“I had played volleyball since I was in fifth grade, but I didn’t really start playing competitively until I was 16 or so,” mentions Sikkink. “I tried basketball out and I quickly realized that basketball wasn’t going to be my calling card.”
It didn’t take long for Sikkink to realize that it is probably best to trade her basketball shoes in for some volleyball knee pads.
St. Charles is about 27 miles East of Rochester, Minn., and Kait decided that she would try out for one of the traveling teams in Rochester.
Years later, Kait and her family reflect on that time she made the traveling team.
“My dad and I were just talking about this a few weeks ago,” Sikkink said. “He was like, I was watching you and I said, this is going to be questionable.”
Her coaches must’ve seen the potential in her, because Sikkink made the top team. Her dad’s first reaction to her making the top team? Let’s just say he was really surprised. Kaitlin mentions it was in a loving way of course.
She said she wouldn’t be a Golden Eagle without her traveling team coach, Deb Hegerle.
“I went from being rough and unpolished, to actually being pretty decent at this volleyball thing,” Sikkink acknowledged.
By her senior year at St. Charles High School, Sikkink had done a lot of things that caught some college coaches’ attention. She was All-State honorable mention as a senior and brought her high school team to be second in her conference.
Sikkink was looked at by a number of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference schools, including Winona State, and was pursued by St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth, as well as a few Division III schools, including St. Mary’s University, just 31 miles from Sikkink’s hometown.
Because Sikkink started so late in her volleyball career, a lot of the schools she had looked into already had a full roster and there was one school that caught her eye; The University of Minnesota Crookston.
“They had originally recruited me, I think because of my enthusiasm, but I also think Lee and Heather saw potential in me, hence the redshirt my first season,” said Sikkink.
At the time, Minnesota Crookston was really the only option, but for Sikkink, her decision was made for a lot more than volleyball.
Sikkink’s parents both work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., so it’s only fitting that Sikkink is going to school to one day be in the health field. Sikkink wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do, so she typed into Google “Counseling and Biology” and the first thing to pop-up was Genetic Counseling, so she went with it and is now in the process of applying to graduate schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Colorado, and Georgia. Genetic Counseling is a process to evaluate and understand a family’s risk of an inherited medical condition. In other words, it is a lot of research in order to be what Sikkink eventually wants to be.
It was what Minnesota Crookston offered academically that had Sikkink sold on becoming a Golden Eagle.
“They had the program I wanted, the research I wanted and the size of the campus was perfect, as well as that amazing U of M degree,” said Sikkink.
On the court, Sikkink had a lot of competition at the middle hitter position, but she took a redshirt as a compliment, rather than an insult.
She ultimately earned a starting spot early on in her career, but a change at the head coach position was something that she didn’t know how to feel about.
“I wasn’t very happy with my previous situation and I had talked to Lee about leaving,” she said. “I was just very miserable about everything.”
It wasn’t until a talk with Director of Athletics Stephanie Helgeson made her realize that Crookston was and always will be home.
“I went in for a talk with our AD (Steph Helgeson) and she made me realize just how welcomed and loved I was here.”
Although she was never in on the process to hire now Head Coach Sarah Rauen, Sikkink was confident that she would like her because all of her friends liked her.
Heading into her redshirt sophomore season, Sikkink was losing the love of volleyball and needed something to reignite that fire that made her fall in love with the game in the first place.
That’s when there was a drill in practice changed the game for Sikkink for the good.
“We had a drill where we had to reach a maximum of 25 back-and-forth’s in a row and we were at 27 when the ball went into the other gym and I just sort of jogged after it,” she said. Coach Rauen then looked at Sikkink and questioned her; “that’s the effort you’re going to give,” she asked Sikkink.
For some odd reason, that was all Sikkink needed to restore her love of the game. All it took for a new coach coming into a new program with a new mindset for Sikkink to realize something she didn’t think was possible.
Since coming to Crookston, six and a half hours away from her St. Charles, Minn., town, she has been through a lot of life changing experiences in her five years in Northern Minnesota.
One of those life changing experiences came her sophomore year, where she went on a volunteer trip to Newark, N.J.
In a lot of different ways it was a huge eye opener for her, but one of the biggest was the culture change.
“Before that time, I have never really been outside of the Midwest, besides Alaska and Mexico and coming from St. Charles, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said the fifth-year senior. “We stayed in a place in downtown and they had to board up all the doors and told the volunteers to not go outside past a certain time.”
One thing she will never forget about that trip out to the East coast is a classroom that she spent a majority of her time while in New Jersey.
While at the school, she got a tour of it on their very first day. While on the tour, she realized that they built a playground on the third story of the school and she thought it was an innovative thing and wondered why more schools didn’t do that exact thing.
“I thought out loud that it was a great idea that they built up rather than out,” she mentioned. “This guy then looks at me and says ‘that it’s up here for the kids’ safety’, and when he said that, I think I shed a few tears.”
On one of her last days at that same school, Sikkink had begun to get close to the kids in the classroom. The teacher of the class asked all students to sit down and one of the students wouldn’t cooperate and sit down. The student went to sit down, but before he got to his seat, he tripped over a rug, which enticed the teacher to say “that’s what you get, everyone get up and laugh at him,” which ultimately led all the third graders to laugh at this student.
Sikkink didn’t like that and it was apparent. The teacher apologized to Kaitlin and told her to watch the student while she took the rest of her kids to the gym.
Once the door shut and the class left, she asked the student if he was okay and the student looked up at the 5 feet 10 inch Sikkink and gave her a big hug and called her his “best friend.”
At that point, she realized that all of those kids in the school needs someone to love them and be there for them. This compassion is why Genetic Counseling is a great fit for Sikkink.
From a volleyball standpoint, once the final ball hits the ground this Saturday against Minnesota State and Sikkink’s career as a Golden Eagle is over, she’s content with everything.
“I think that I have seen the transformation I have wanted to see in the program, my teammates and individually that makes me content,” she said. “If anything, I am really content in where I have helped our program from a culture and our character and the things we preach every day.”
It has been a long, curvy and strange road since Kaitlin came to Crookston in the fall of 2015, but she wouldn’t want it any other way.
“I wholeheartedly believe that I wouldn’t be where I am today without Crookston,” she said. “The people and opportunities up here are second to none and I am forever grateful that I came here.”
Well said Kaitlin, well said.
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