Oleksak Branched Out in Her Time at Colorado State
Volleyball record holder nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year Award
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The blueprint was in place, at least when it came to volleyball.
Transitioning from the third-team Under Armour High School All-American to the collegiate courts, Katie Oleksak wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. She never did.
The desire to succeed and the work required to attain her goals would never be questioned in four years at Colorado State. It didn’t matter if it was a match day or a leg day in the weight room. There was no difference between a team workout and an individual-skills session. She learned there never could be when she was growing up in Phoenix, Ariz., rising to the status of a targeted recruit.
Colorado State coach Tom Hilbert is picky when it comes to his setters. He was one himself. He can ride and push the position like no other on his court, and in Oleksak, he found a gifted tactician he could immediately hand over the keys to steer his offense.
A talent like no other before, really.
By the time she exited Moby Arena for the final time, Oleksak had become the first three-time Mountain West player of the year. Her name tops the program record book for career assists in the modern scoring era with 5,083, she was an AVCA honorable mention All-American all four seasons for the Rams.
Yes, the volleyball aspect was going to take care of itself.
The rest of college life was going to take some adjustment. She knew, deep down, her four years would not be all about her sport. She showed up with the plan to become a nurse, and putting in the work academically had never been a problem.
Still, these four years were going to have to cover so much more. Who she was going to grow into as a young lady was going to require her to open up a bit, be spontaneous at times, even take a step in a brand new direction. She was going to have to learn to speak up, a skill which came so naturally on a volleyball court. The confidence she had there needed to be transferred to other realms of her life.
There are a lot of elements of her life outside of volleyball, and I think a lot of people will look at a player of that caliber and go, ‘Oh, she’s just focused on volleyball 100 percent of the time. She’s got a lot of different branches on her tree.Tom Hilbert, Head Volleyball Coach
From the start, Hilbert knew he had landed the right setter. He also knew she was going to develop away from his program. He just did.
“I think she chose CSU for the right reasons. She liked the family atmosphere of the team, she liked the community and she liked the community involvement in the program. Those are the things that attracted her, and those are generally high-character things,” Hilbert said. “She’s always been one who has wanted to go out and do community service and really take school very seriously.
“There are a lot of elements of her life outside of volleyball, and I think a lot of people will look at a player of that caliber and go, ‘Oh, she’s just focused on volleyball 100 percent of the time. She’s got a lot of different branches on her tree.”
The CSU Athletic Department has nominated the graduated senior for the NCAA’s Woman of the Year honor, as has the Mountain West. Athletics are just small part of the honor. The award’s backbone is strengthened through academic achievement, leadership and community service.
The foundation was already there. In high school, she was accomplished in the classroom, a member of the National Honor Society. At Colorado State, she made the Dean’s list, was Academic All-Mountain West and a Mountain West Scholar-Athlete each season, as well as earning Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA.
Much of her time at Colorado State was spent in the spotlight. She didn’t seek it, her actions just drew the illumination to her. Those who have come to know her away from the court and campus itself, admire her tendency to walk away from the glow and into the shadows where the real work is done.
“She could honestly care less about that. She said she recognizes the blessings she has and the platform she has, but that’s not really what matters, it’s what she does with it,” Abby Skipworth said. “She’s honestly impacted me a lot, recognizing we’re to be grateful for our gifts, but also to not take them lightly.”
As part of her membership in the NHA at Sunnyslope High School, Oleksak was involved in community service activities, and she spent time working with the homeless in the area. As a teenager, the impact it had on her was immediate.
“My motto is sort of no one left behind,” Oleksak said. “This spring, working with people with disabilities, I think that’s such an important population. Whether it’s homeless, seniors or people with disabilities, just having that human connection – even with kids at camps – that’s important to me.”
It wasn’t just enough to live in a community, but to be part of the greater good. To be involved. To help others. Community service was a branch. So was simply being present.
Which took some work. She liked going to Old Town with the team in the summer, meeting the fans and signing autographs. She liked it when children flooded the Moby Arena court after matches, asking for her autograph. Enjoying it was easy. But really becoming part of the activities required some adjustment.
Her freshman year, she may have signed a poster, smiled and moved on to the next youngster. By her senior year, she was starting conversations. She always understood the fan base just wanted to know a little more about the players they were watching – feel like they really knew who they were – and now, she was turning the tables. She not only became comfortable with sharing about herself, but also in taking a genuine interest in who approached her.
Pushing aside all of her academic and athletic achievements, Oleksak believes that change was her greatest accomplishment in four years.
“That happened, kind of without me knowing it,” she said. “Looking back now, it’s like that’s cool that I tried new things. I pride myself on that. I made my experience at CSU really great.”
Adding to her plate early on was not easy for her, as she had to learn to balance her life as volleyball required a large piece of the pie. Before long, she was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on campus and an active participant in Rambition, a student-athlete group with a goal of empowering young women.
She learned to create time for the outside world. She took part in youth volleyball camps and Ram Welcome, helping incoming freshmen move into the dorms. She stood with CSUnite, a march against campus hate. She visited elementary schools, Ram Jam and loved the fact the volleyball team adopted Sara Robinson through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.
She took part in Night to Shine, a special needs prom through the Tim Tebow Foundation and helped with Cans Around the Oval. On a personal level, she went skiing for the first time, and she found Mill City Church, which aided in her growth.
She was quiet there at first. Eventually, she started meeting people, some of them other CSU athletes. She joined Bible study groups, initially nervous to pray out loud. By the end, she was leading college Bible studies.
It was there when she met Skipworth, who is an assistant to the head pastor and helps with the various Bible studies. The two are the same age, so they struck a bond. Skipworth told Oleksak she was going to one of her matches, and while Oleksak was happy to have her in the crowd, she sort of buried the lede on what was about to happen.
It was the night Oleksak broke the CSU assists record. For Skipworth, that was normal for Oleksak, and a prime reason why the church valued her as a parishioner.
“Katie really cares about her environment and people around her and however everybody else is. What I’ve noticed about Katie is she just makes people feel good and safe. Before she even speaks a word, her presence makes other people feel welcome,” Skipworth said. “Any space she was in, like when she was at Mill City being a leader, she made people feel comfortable. In the aspect of her community, she really cares about more than just being an athlete, she wants to be a well-rounded individual. She cares about people and their emotional health, like somebody wants to listen to them and understand them. She really invests her time outward as opposed to just being successful and goal-oriented. That’s a huge part of her, but she really cares about people and really making other people feel she cares and wants to invest time in them.”
That gift is what led Oleksak down the path to wanting to become a nurse, reaching an initial step by becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant. Helping people brings her joy, even if it was a smile at the end of bringing a patient a cup of ice water.
Those moments are rewarding to her, but more so, people around her have found she is as dedicated to those she looks to serve as she was to any of her personal pursuits. One of them, an internship with Adaptive Recreation through the City of Fort Collins.
Naturally, the internship started right before the outbreak of COVID-19 shut down programs around the country, but in those three months, Oleksak worked with participants who had Down syndrome or autism, some with multiple sclerosis.
It being an internship, she was going to get a grade. It became clear to her supervisor, Brenda McDowell, a letter on a report card was not the motivation.
“She sees the bigger picture. She’s not just going through the steps of getting things done, but actually cares about it and is enjoying it,” McDowell said. “You can really tell the difference between students who are just trying to get something done or actually care about it and their heart is in it. There’s that passion there. She’s definitely part of that group. She wanted to do a good job and cared about it. You could tell she was getting as much out of it as the participants that we’re serving.”
Funny things happen at college. People change, and they do so through doors opened to new experiences. For Oleksak, in some cases she needed a push toward the door, but not so much anymore. She signed a professional contract in March to play volleyball in Switzerland, her next new adventure. She’s already made inroads to finding a church there, as well as finding ways to become an active member of the community as a whole.
The internship opened a path to occupational therapy she had not yet considered, so she took the one class she needed this summer to allow her to possibly change career paths.
As a freshman leaving home, this isn’t how she pictured her time at Colorado State. Then again, that’s what has made it so exciting to take a look at the decisions she made.
Her heart never changed. It just opened up to the idea of doing so much more.
“As you go through that maturing process, you get comfortable in your own skin and get comfortable with the fans around you. It’s easier to interact and be your true self,” she said. “I didn’t come in thinking I would lead a Bible study, play professional volleyball. I was not one minded, but was kind of set on the goal of volleyball. Then you start to meet people who open new doors for you. It’s so cool walking out of here with just a broader perspective on life.”