File photograph by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Excessive's Maddie Backer takes a shot within the paint throughout a Jan. 19, 2023, house recreation in opposition to St. Peter.
NEW ULM — New Ulm Excessive Faculty senior Maddie Backer will graduate and transfer south of New Ulm subsequent 12 months.
He’ll quickly discover himself in one other small city that reminds him of house, nonetheless, as he’ll head to Pella, Iowa, to attend Central Faculty to play basketball and proceed his schooling.
Backer, a 5-foot-6 guard for the New Ulm Eagles ladies basketball and softball groups, made it official Wednesday when she signed her letter of intent.
Backer is coming into his ultimate 12 months of highschool basketball, coming off a 2023-24 season wherein he averaged 10.eight factors, four.1 assists, three.three rebounds and a couple of.6 steals per recreation.
Central Faculty wooed Backer rapidly over the summer time after he attended an elite 2024 faculty camp.
“I visited Central in the summertime and appreciated their teaching employees,” Backer stated. “As quickly as I went to the coaching camp, I noticed how the teaching employees behaved, how they handled their athletes, I simply knew that's the place I wished to be. It didn't actually come all the way down to a number of faculties, it simply got here all the way down to – it was Central or nothing, and it was simply form of, “Is Central going to have all the pieces I would like?” And I made a decision he did.”
With a inhabitants of roughly 10,500, Pella was based by a Dutch immigrant, Dominie Henry Peter Scholte, within the mid-1800s. It’s positioned in Marion County, Iowa, 478 miles southeast of New Ulm and is, by Additionally, former NBA All-Star and prolific three-point shooter Kyle Korver graduated from Pella Excessive Faculty in 1999.
“Pella, Iowa is about four hours and 15 minutes from New Ulm.” Backer stated. “It jogs my memory quite a lot of New Ulm, it's form of a smaller city, however it's not small like a Nicollet or something.”
Central Faculty, based in 1853, has a pupil physique of roughly 1,700 and is house to the Division III Dutch Central Faculty.
Backer stated Dutch ladies's basketball head coach Justin Weiland informed her she would probably play her at level guard, taking pictures guard or potential small ahead.
“Speaking to Justin, their head coach, he stated he's going to see me first both at 1, 2 or three,” Backer stated. “So after I'm a freshman … 4 senior guards are going to graduate this 12 months so that they're going to want some guard work so he stated I'm going to be 1 or 2 at most so I'm going to be the guard or wing.”
Along with the truth that the city of Pella reminds her of New Ulm, Backer additionally sees similarities between her present workforce, the New Ulm Eagles, and the Central Faculty Dutch workforce.
“I believe they’ve a really comparable offense to my highschool ball workforce,” Backer stated. “They wish to get quick breaks, they wish to push the ball up the courtroom in a short time, they wish to rating with minimal passes. However clearly once they need to arrange their offense, they usually have a excessive publish and 4 guards outdoors the arc … and so they've performed set, however it's only a movement offense.
“Whenever you're in faculty, all people's sensible sufficient to learn the protection and skim their teammates and know what to do, and it's simply form of a drive-and-kick offense with publish work.”
Backer has already met her future Central teammates a number of occasions and is aware of the workforce has expertise on the place she's excited to work with, akin to 6-foot-1 ahead CeCe Moore (12 pts, 9 rpg).
“I've met the ladies about 3 times now,” Backer stated. “They’re truly very robust within the publish. They’ve a really gifted publish there this 12 months, and he or she's solely a sophomore. I do know somebody in my class who received employed from Minnesota [Katelyn Peterson, Centennial H.S.]she's actually tall [6-foot-1].”
Backer had affords from different faculties to play basketball, however she additionally listened to coaches serious about recruiting her to play softball, and for good cause.
Within the spring of 2024, Backer hit .382 and led the Eagles in hits (29), runs scored (30), stolen bases (29) and triples (5).
“I truly had a number of different affords for basketball after which final 12 months I wasn't certain if I wished to play softball in faculty or not,” Backer stated. “I've had some curiosity from — I'd truly say extra softball coaches than basketball coaches — however, yeah, I've had curiosity in each sports activities. And this 12 months I made a decision I simply wished to play one sport in faculty after which I made a decision I wished that sport to be basketball.”
One other college that received slightly extra consideration from Backer was Bethany Lutheran Faculty in Mankato. Nonetheless, Backer stated it was slightly too near house and smaller than she would love, so Central remained on the prime of her listing.
“Just about after I received the provide from Central, each different college that reached out to me, I form of informed them I wasn't and I knew it was going to be Central or nothing.” Backer stated. “I simply needed to resolve between Central and like a giant state college, so it simply got here all the way down to basketball or U of M [University of Minnesota] or Iowa State or Wisconsin, and after I selected basketball, I knew instantly it was going to be Central.”
Regardless of what number of sports activities an athlete performs in highschool, not having the possibility to play any in faculty would have been tough for Backer to deal with.
“I'm trying ahead to persevering with my basketball profession,” Backer stated. “Lastly, I do know that not many athletes have the possibility to increase their sports activities profession after [high school]so simply to have the chance to play one other 4 years is a significant blessing and I'm very excited to proceed my profession.
“I'm a really aggressive individual, so going from competing in two sports activities to competing in nothing could be a giant leap for me, so I'm trying ahead to persevering with to compete.”
Backer stated she isn't 100 % determined but, however is at the moment contemplating finding out enterprise analytics.
Nonetheless, the winter of 2025 is a great distance off, and Backer will probably be seeking to make her ultimate 12 months of basketball and softball her greatest but.