Colorado State University Athletics
Oleksak's CSU story has benefits for all
8/28/2019 4:00:00 PM | Volleyball, RamWire
Setter heads into senior campaign with more to accomplish
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Emily Kohan didn't know the stir she was going to cause by simply going to practice in leggings.
There's not a darn thing unusual about an assistant volleyball coaching attending practice in this day and age wearing them, but only one team in the country has Katie Oleksak on roster, and that's Colorado State.
And poor Alyssa Bert. The freshman had no idea she was about to confuse Kohan when she asked her coach about "The Rule."
"We told Alyssa none of us were ever allowed to wear leggings," Oleksak said, breaking into laughter. "One time at practice, Emily wore leggings, and she didn't know we were doing this, and Alyssa was like, 'Emily, I thought we weren't allowed to wear leggings, and we all started laughing, so we told her. Now they just understand that's my personality."
Oleksak can spin a good story, which Olivia Nicholson learned as a freshman. She's been the subject of Oleksak's yarns, and she's also played Robin to her Batman. It has reached a point where it's hard to keep a straight face when Oleksak digs in for a good tale.
How about the time she convinced Paulina Hougaard-Jensen – from Copenhagen, Denmark – that a quarter was only worth seven cents?
"She is good at bringing a laugh when there needs to be a laugh. She's good at – this sounds so silly – at making up stories about, if you ask a serious question like, when was that place built, she'll just make up a story and go with it," Nicholson said. "It's fun to have someone like that on the team that's just easy-going, goes with the flow. You can always just banter with her back and forth, and I don't necessarily think people see that in her on the court in competition. Especially for me. We were roommates my freshman year, so she's my go-to person for a laugh, and no one really sees that side of her."
Oh, the stories she can tell, and she's pinned quite a doozy for Colorado State's volleyball team.
She was hailed upon arrival. She was an Under Armor All-American out of Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, Ariz., and was inserted as the team's starter at setter immediately. Even the hitters she inherited were excited about her, and Oleksak had not even delivered a ball to them yet.
She was billed as that good. She's also delivered.
In the history of the Mountain West, no one has been named player of the year three times. As Oleksak enters her senior campaign, she does so as the two-time reigning possessor of that crown. Naturally, she was chosen the preseason player of the year in voting by coaches. She led the conference in assists in 2018 with 1,288, the third consecutive year she has paced the category. In the modern scoring era, she's completely edited the program's record book.
She had the best freshman season, be it total assists or average per set. She has three of the top six single-season totals in assists, three of the top five in assists per match. As the school's leader in career assists per set, she needs 911 as a senior to break the career total.
She thinks she's held up her end of end of her National Letter of Intent, but almost with an asterisk. She always thinks she could have done better, and that's what she intends to do in Year Four.
She also hopes she isn't at the peak of her volleyball talents.
"I think so. I think going into it I didn't have this grand expectation of like, at the end of my four years of college this is exactly who I want to be," she said. "It's been a growing process, and as long as I grow every year, I'm never fully going to be happy with myself, but I'm going to be happy with my decision. I do think in this program I've grown every year, and I'm continuing to try to grow, especially in this, my senior season."
Head coach Tom Hilbert knows this about his setter. He's a former one himself, and he has a way of pushing those under his guidance to always be better. With Oleksak, he's figured out how and when to push buttons.
He's never going to tell you she hasn't been great. He'll never tell you she can't get better.
"Certainly she has been. I know this is cliché, but I don't like to think about things that way," he said. "I like to think about things in terms of what she can still get better at. And I do think she has to be a little bit better at making others around her play the best they can possibly play. I think she's making a concerted effort this year to try to understand individuals, the way they want the ball and the situations they will get it in.
"Last year, on a number of occasions, she kinda got stuck. She'd get in these rows we couldn't get out of. I think she wanted at those times to do something spectacular, or something deceptive, where what she really has to do is keep people's momentum going throughout the course of the match so she can always use everybody."
Undoubtedly, she is the fuel to Colorado State's fire as the Rams pursue another in a line of Mountain West championships and NCAA Tournament bids.
She's far from satisfied. She wants more. She wants to reach the Sweet 16.
That's' what she wants to give Colorado State for her faith in her.
But there are two sides to the NLI, and though it took her a bit of time to grow into her role as a college student, she more than feels Colorado State has lived up to its end of the bargain.
Hilbert understood when he was recruiting her there were a number of other suitors, and opening up her eyes to Fort Collins, the university and what they both had to offer was part of the pitch. For those reasons, he's glad she feels she made the right choice three years later.
"She's very serious about her life outside of sports. She's made a few life-decision changes recently, and she's very mature. She's not just a volleyball player," he said. "I believe this, I always tout her as a player who came here for the right reasons. She liked the culture and the family atmosphere, she liked the other players and she felt like it would be a comfortable place for her to come play where she could grow in a lot of areas. I think she's made some of the best friends of her life, which is something you always want to see. She has a great appreciation for CSU volleyball is and what CSU is as an institution."
As a freshman, Oleksak said she took a slow pace, felt things out. She didn't have a car, so she didn't explore much back then, which she regrets.
Eventually, with transportation at her disposal, she set out. She went to Old Town with friends. She started going on ski trips, even became involved with SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee). Recently, she found a church to call home, Mill City, which was altering for her.
"That's a separate community from the athletic community, and granted, they don't really understand my schedule, they don't really understand what I go through, but it's a nice, refreshing new community of those people," she said. "(Former teammate) Amanda Young has kind of helped me out with that since she's committed to going to nursing school.
"It's cool, because our team has a row and we'll all go. It's kind of like volleyball has moved into church, but it's cool, because it's a different group with the church we've connected to."
As nice as the city of Fort Collins is, and as beautiful as the 14ers of Colorado rise up on the horizon, the world is a much bigger place, and the Green and Global Program helped open her eyes to the great beyond.
She and Nicholson both went on the trip to Costa Rica's EARTH University, spending part of the trip on campus and with host families. It was seeing the real country which she enjoyed most.
"Green and Global was amazing. It's definitely very humbling just to see how those people live," she said. "My favorite part was the host families for two reasons. One, you're just really thrown into the culture. My hostess could only speak Spanish, and it was awesome. I was throw into this house with two athletes, one who minors in Spanish, one double majoring in Spanish. With the three of us, Rosa, would speak to us, and we'd come together, think of a sentence and reply. We weren't having small talk with Rosa, we were having meaningful conversations about school and religion and farming. It made it so enjoyable."
So she, soccer player Emma Shinsky and swimmer Jannae Frederick still continue speaking with Rosa (who only sends audio messages) via What's App.
The bond she shared with her two fellow athletes was also vitally important for Oleksak. And not just them, but swimmer Olivia Chatman. Now they have regular get-togethers planned. She also figured out Chatman attends Mill City Church, too.
Who knew? Oleksak didn't, even though they'd both been attending. They needed to go to another country to find each other a few rows apart at church.
Nicholson is thrilled to see her friend branch out and truly explore life on campus beyond volleyball, especially seeing how much Oleksak has grown with each new adventure.
"I think this school is amazing, and we have made a lot of connections outside of this athletic department as well as in it, to prepare her for whatever she wants to do, whether it's nursing, occupational therapy, playing professionally," Nicholson said. "We have those connections. I think this school is amazing at that in general for regular students, but also for student-athletes. I think she's gotten socially what she's wanted out of it. Friendships, experiences, opportunities. She went to Costa Rica with me, she went to Europe last year (with the Mountain West all-star volleyball team). I think this school and this town have provided so much for her."
Those past experiences have made her appreciate the future so much more. She's not sure what comes next. The thought takes her past the upcoming season to possibly heading to nursing school after finishing her degree in health and exercise science. The doors are open, a concept she's been enlightened to once she set out on her new path.
Like her stories, the endings are limitless, she admits. She always fesses up in the end. She didn't let Hougaard-Jensen go too long believing she had less money in her pocket than she thought. While it's a skill she developed from time spent with her father, Wayne, and her brother, Steven, her mom, Jennie, is not a fan.
"I got a text from my mom later that week to stop bullying Paulina," Oleksak said. "She found out because I bragged it up to my dad and brother."
Oleksak has paid back Colorado State's volleyball program in full for that NLI, but she'll be the first to tell you it's been an even exchange.
"I think the more effort you put in, the more you get involved -- and people told me this when I was a freshman -- the more you'll get out of it," Oleksak said. "So I do think it took a couple years to kind of realize this is an awesome place. But looking back on my four years, I totally would have done it the exact same way."
And that's a true story.
There's not a darn thing unusual about an assistant volleyball coaching attending practice in this day and age wearing them, but only one team in the country has Katie Oleksak on roster, and that's Colorado State.
And poor Alyssa Bert. The freshman had no idea she was about to confuse Kohan when she asked her coach about "The Rule."
"We told Alyssa none of us were ever allowed to wear leggings," Oleksak said, breaking into laughter. "One time at practice, Emily wore leggings, and she didn't know we were doing this, and Alyssa was like, 'Emily, I thought we weren't allowed to wear leggings, and we all started laughing, so we told her. Now they just understand that's my personality."
Oleksak can spin a good story, which Olivia Nicholson learned as a freshman. She's been the subject of Oleksak's yarns, and she's also played Robin to her Batman. It has reached a point where it's hard to keep a straight face when Oleksak digs in for a good tale.
How about the time she convinced Paulina Hougaard-Jensen – from Copenhagen, Denmark – that a quarter was only worth seven cents?
"She is good at bringing a laugh when there needs to be a laugh. She's good at – this sounds so silly – at making up stories about, if you ask a serious question like, when was that place built, she'll just make up a story and go with it," Nicholson said. "It's fun to have someone like that on the team that's just easy-going, goes with the flow. You can always just banter with her back and forth, and I don't necessarily think people see that in her on the court in competition. Especially for me. We were roommates my freshman year, so she's my go-to person for a laugh, and no one really sees that side of her."
Oh, the stories she can tell, and she's pinned quite a doozy for Colorado State's volleyball team.
She was hailed upon arrival. She was an Under Armor All-American out of Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, Ariz., and was inserted as the team's starter at setter immediately. Even the hitters she inherited were excited about her, and Oleksak had not even delivered a ball to them yet.
She was billed as that good. She's also delivered.
In the history of the Mountain West, no one has been named player of the year three times. As Oleksak enters her senior campaign, she does so as the two-time reigning possessor of that crown. Naturally, she was chosen the preseason player of the year in voting by coaches. She led the conference in assists in 2018 with 1,288, the third consecutive year she has paced the category. In the modern scoring era, she's completely edited the program's record book.
She had the best freshman season, be it total assists or average per set. She has three of the top six single-season totals in assists, three of the top five in assists per match. As the school's leader in career assists per set, she needs 911 as a senior to break the career total.
She thinks she's held up her end of end of her National Letter of Intent, but almost with an asterisk. She always thinks she could have done better, and that's what she intends to do in Year Four.
She also hopes she isn't at the peak of her volleyball talents."I think so. I think going into it I didn't have this grand expectation of like, at the end of my four years of college this is exactly who I want to be," she said. "It's been a growing process, and as long as I grow every year, I'm never fully going to be happy with myself, but I'm going to be happy with my decision. I do think in this program I've grown every year, and I'm continuing to try to grow, especially in this, my senior season."
Head coach Tom Hilbert knows this about his setter. He's a former one himself, and he has a way of pushing those under his guidance to always be better. With Oleksak, he's figured out how and when to push buttons.
He's never going to tell you she hasn't been great. He'll never tell you she can't get better.
"Certainly she has been. I know this is cliché, but I don't like to think about things that way," he said. "I like to think about things in terms of what she can still get better at. And I do think she has to be a little bit better at making others around her play the best they can possibly play. I think she's making a concerted effort this year to try to understand individuals, the way they want the ball and the situations they will get it in.
"Last year, on a number of occasions, she kinda got stuck. She'd get in these rows we couldn't get out of. I think she wanted at those times to do something spectacular, or something deceptive, where what she really has to do is keep people's momentum going throughout the course of the match so she can always use everybody."
Undoubtedly, she is the fuel to Colorado State's fire as the Rams pursue another in a line of Mountain West championships and NCAA Tournament bids.
She's far from satisfied. She wants more. She wants to reach the Sweet 16.
That's' what she wants to give Colorado State for her faith in her.
But there are two sides to the NLI, and though it took her a bit of time to grow into her role as a college student, she more than feels Colorado State has lived up to its end of the bargain.
Hilbert understood when he was recruiting her there were a number of other suitors, and opening up her eyes to Fort Collins, the university and what they both had to offer was part of the pitch. For those reasons, he's glad she feels she made the right choice three years later.
"She's very serious about her life outside of sports. She's made a few life-decision changes recently, and she's very mature. She's not just a volleyball player," he said. "I believe this, I always tout her as a player who came here for the right reasons. She liked the culture and the family atmosphere, she liked the other players and she felt like it would be a comfortable place for her to come play where she could grow in a lot of areas. I think she's made some of the best friends of her life, which is something you always want to see. She has a great appreciation for CSU volleyball is and what CSU is as an institution."
As a freshman, Oleksak said she took a slow pace, felt things out. She didn't have a car, so she didn't explore much back then, which she regrets.Eventually, with transportation at her disposal, she set out. She went to Old Town with friends. She started going on ski trips, even became involved with SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee). Recently, she found a church to call home, Mill City, which was altering for her.
"That's a separate community from the athletic community, and granted, they don't really understand my schedule, they don't really understand what I go through, but it's a nice, refreshing new community of those people," she said. "(Former teammate) Amanda Young has kind of helped me out with that since she's committed to going to nursing school.
"It's cool, because our team has a row and we'll all go. It's kind of like volleyball has moved into church, but it's cool, because it's a different group with the church we've connected to."
As nice as the city of Fort Collins is, and as beautiful as the 14ers of Colorado rise up on the horizon, the world is a much bigger place, and the Green and Global Program helped open her eyes to the great beyond.
She and Nicholson both went on the trip to Costa Rica's EARTH University, spending part of the trip on campus and with host families. It was seeing the real country which she enjoyed most.
"Green and Global was amazing. It's definitely very humbling just to see how those people live," she said. "My favorite part was the host families for two reasons. One, you're just really thrown into the culture. My hostess could only speak Spanish, and it was awesome. I was throw into this house with two athletes, one who minors in Spanish, one double majoring in Spanish. With the three of us, Rosa, would speak to us, and we'd come together, think of a sentence and reply. We weren't having small talk with Rosa, we were having meaningful conversations about school and religion and farming. It made it so enjoyable."
So she, soccer player Emma Shinsky and swimmer Jannae Frederick still continue speaking with Rosa (who only sends audio messages) via What's App.
The bond she shared with her two fellow athletes was also vitally important for Oleksak. And not just them, but swimmer Olivia Chatman. Now they have regular get-togethers planned. She also figured out Chatman attends Mill City Church, too.
Who knew? Oleksak didn't, even though they'd both been attending. They needed to go to another country to find each other a few rows apart at church.
Nicholson is thrilled to see her friend branch out and truly explore life on campus beyond volleyball, especially seeing how much Oleksak has grown with each new adventure.
"I think this school is amazing, and we have made a lot of connections outside of this athletic department as well as in it, to prepare her for whatever she wants to do, whether it's nursing, occupational therapy, playing professionally," Nicholson said. "We have those connections. I think this school is amazing at that in general for regular students, but also for student-athletes. I think she's gotten socially what she's wanted out of it. Friendships, experiences, opportunities. She went to Costa Rica with me, she went to Europe last year (with the Mountain West all-star volleyball team). I think this school and this town have provided so much for her."
Those past experiences have made her appreciate the future so much more. She's not sure what comes next. The thought takes her past the upcoming season to possibly heading to nursing school after finishing her degree in health and exercise science. The doors are open, a concept she's been enlightened to once she set out on her new path.
Like her stories, the endings are limitless, she admits. She always fesses up in the end. She didn't let Hougaard-Jensen go too long believing she had less money in her pocket than she thought. While it's a skill she developed from time spent with her father, Wayne, and her brother, Steven, her mom, Jennie, is not a fan.
"I got a text from my mom later that week to stop bullying Paulina," Oleksak said. "She found out because I bragged it up to my dad and brother."
Oleksak has paid back Colorado State's volleyball program in full for that NLI, but she'll be the first to tell you it's been an even exchange.
"I think the more effort you put in, the more you get involved -- and people told me this when I was a freshman -- the more you'll get out of it," Oleksak said. "So I do think it took a couple years to kind of realize this is an awesome place. But looking back on my four years, I totally would have done it the exact same way."
And that's a true story.
Players Mentioned
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/ Volleyball
MB
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OH
/ Volleyball
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DS
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