O-F's Hugdahl signs with Viterbo to play college basketball
OSSEO - Madison Hugdahl knew she wanted to go to college. Knew she wanted to go to Viterbo University in La Crosse for its nursing program.
What she didn't know is whether she wanted to play collegiate sports.
Hugdahl, a student-athlete at Osseo-Fairchild High School is an All-Cloverbelt Conference athlete in both volleyball and basketball and helped her Thunder teams win conference titles and make state tournaments. But her first consideration when it came to college was simply continuing on with her studies rather than athletics, which is an enormous commitment of time and energy for a college student no matter what the level.
"I watched Viterbo play and I liked what they were doing. I liked the team atmosphere and cohesion they had and that's very important to me," Hugdahl said. "And I realized I would miss it too much I wasn't playing and regret that I didn't go out for the team."
So with a lot of back n' forth about this decision just to play, let alone find the right school (it came to three, including Viterbo) Hugdahl made her choice and signed a National Letter of Intent (NLOI) last week Wednesday, April 28 in the auxiliary gym at Osseo-Fairchild Middle/Senior High School.
Viterbo is coached by Lionel Jones, who had great success coaching high school girls basketball at nearby Durand. He said Madison will be a good fit for the program being built at Viterbo, which finished 9-7 last season with a limited schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I've watched her play several times and what stood out was her versitility as a post player," Jones said. "She can play multiple positions and that goes with the kind of game we play. She really checks all the boxes we look for in a student-athletes and that is a good player, good student and a great teammate. Her team-first attitude is going to be a great addition to our program."
Hugdahl's O-F teammate Lacy Frase has also made her college basketball choice and picked Marian. She will sign her NLOI either next fall or the spring of 2022. Having such collegiate-bound athletes from the back-to-back West Cloverbelt Conference champions has head coach Tera Simpson very happy to see her players take next step after they graduate from Osseo-Fairchild.
"It's a big decision, a tough decision and a big time commitment if you do decide to play college sports," Simpson said. "But I think it shows how much our players have grown in the game to where they can go on to the next level, as Madison has done. She has height for sure but she's also a great athlete, great player and great person. This is a good choice for her."
