TULARE – Katelyn Schroeder is hoping that her high school volleyball career will end the same place it started five years ago: the State B Tournament.

As an eighth-grader, Schroeder played a key role on the only Hitchcock-Tulare volleyball team ever to play in the state tourney. Now, as a senior leader, she has helped lead the Patriots to its best season in school history at 28-2 heading into the postseason.

Little did Schroeder realize back in the day how hard getting to a state tourney would be.

“It felt like this was going to be an every year thing,” Schroeder said. “It was tough to lose six seniors.”

Schroeder has come close to making it back, most recently last season falling one match short in the SoDak 16.

Through the years Schroeder has racked up a resume full of impressive stats and school records, but even more importantly, she has come to a realization of where the sport volleyball fits into the grand scheme of life.

“This year I feel like we’ve had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. We know that there’s a lot at stake, but we also have a lot more confidence and stability in our team,” Schroeder said. “We realize it’s more than a sport, and the relationships that we’ve made throughout this sport have really shaped each of us as a person. So we kind of like to focus on our team as more of a family aspect and not just we’re here to win. But we love to win as a family.”

It’s a lesson that some never quite figure out, but one that has truly impacted Schroeder’s life as much as she has impacted the sport.

“I think I’m blessed to have played so long to finally realize that,” Schroeder said. “As an eighth-grader I had so much anxiety built up in me, and really the only place I felt comfortable was in the back row.”

For Schroeder, volleyball has served as a safe haven to help her when life’s troubles come her way, and there have been plenty of those.

“I always say the goal from the beginning of the season has been to make it to the state tournament,” Schroeder said. “It’s the dream of every team, but I feel like it’s not really what’s going to define not only my career, but our team as whole. Honestly, last year was probably the toughest year for me.”

Schroeder was on the verge of hitting a pair of milestone accomplishments as she prepared to play in a tournament at the Sanford Pentagon. However, her mom was involved in a serious farming accident and had to be flown out for medical treatment. She ended up being hospitalized for three months as the most important matches of the season were on the near horizon.

“To be playing volleyball and doing school every single day, to come home and kind of keep the household together with my dad, it showed me that volleyball was just a lot more than a sport,” Schroeder said. “It kind of kept me going as a person.”

The day after her mom’s accident, Schroeder recorded her 1,000th career dig, “which was hard to do without my mom there,” she said.

Next was Schroeder’s 1,000th career kill which her mom was able to watch from the hospital.

Then came the postseason where Hitchcock-Tulare defeated Northwestern in the region, and then fell to Faulkton one match away from the state tourney, all without her mom being in attendance.

“It was definitely a lot to handle,” Schroeder said, “but I think when we talked about looking over my career as a whole, that it was definitely the year that shaped me as a player and a person.”

It’s also when Schroeder came to realize that her volleyball teammates were more than just that. They were sisters who were willingly to help their team leader in any way possible.

“I used volleyball kind of as an escape in that situation in my life,” Schroeder said. “That’s when I kind of took in perspective that my teammates were more than just my teammates. That they were really family too, just the way that everyone supported me throughout that part of my life.”

There’s little doubt that Schroeder has always done everything she could for the Patriots.

Her numbers speak for themselves: school record holder for kills in a career (1,418), kills in a match (31), digs in a career (1,526), service attempts in career (3,457), seventh in aces (152) and seventh in blocks (156), 281 all-conference selection four times, three-time all-state player, and those totals will only increase for the rest of this season.

But much more than that is what Schroeder provides in terms of leadership, both on and off the court.

“She’s one where we look at her to just lead the team. She’s done that and then some,” said Hitchcock-Tulare coach Jordan Opp. “When she’s out there I think my nerves are a little bit more at ease. If something’s going to happen, she’s going to take care of it.”

The only thing that has been able to slow Schroeder down was a fracture in her foot that wiped our nearly all of her sophomore season. She was able to get back for the final seven games.

“That was super tough coming back,” Schroeder said. “My very first hit coming back it felt like it was sixth grade again.”

Through the years, Schroeder has experienced a little bit of everything, except the one thing that currently drives her as she closes in on the close of her prep career.

“She has one thought in her mind yet,” Opp said, “and that’s to make the state tournament and play for a state championship.”

The task will be difficult as perennial power Northwestern is a likely opponent in next week’s region, with a win needed just in order to get back to the SoDak 16.

Ever the leader, Schroeder often provides words of wisdom to her teammates on the pressures of being on the elite teams in the state.

“We talk about this usually in the locker room before games with the girls, that you know how much of a privelige it is to be able to feel the pressure that we feel,” Schroeder said, “and that this target that we have should only motivate us to learn how to score in a different way or learn how to be a better player every single game.”

Opp totally understands and appreciates that student-athletes like Schroeder don’t come along very often, especially in small-town South Dakota.

“Especially in a small school like this, we’re very fortunate that we’ve had her for five years. We’ve seen her talent and her ability She’s just a great person, great perspective on everything. Very coachable. Knowledgeable about the game,” Opp said. “Sometimes I look to her for advice. … She probably knows the game almost better than I do at times.”

Regardless of what happens the rest of this season, Schroeder still has plenty of more volleyball ahead. She will be attending Northern State next year to play for the Wolves.

Schroeder said she likes the dynamics of the team and the city of Aberdeen.

“I didn’t get too deep into the recruiting process. I really like the town of Aberdeen. I don’t think it’s too big,” Schroeder said. “I just thought it was cool when I visited the campus there, how it felt like the small community that I’m coming from.”

Time will tell if Schroeder will be able to get back to the state tournament and have a chance to play for a state title, but one thing is obvious, she has gained a perspective on the sport of volleyball that far surpasses someone of her age.

“Obviously, people say that volleyball is more than just a sport,” Schroeder said, “but it’s true, when you step on that court, you just need to know that however you play, your ability doesn’t define you as a person.”