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Mallory Heyer, scorer, rebounder and U recruit, is the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year

By JIM PAULSEN, Star Tribune, 03/14/22, 6:15PM CDT

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The Chaska senior and three others from the 2021-22 All-Metro teams form a recruiting class that has sparked optimism at the U.

“She’s really a team-first kid. It’s never about ‘me.’ She’s a humble leader, and that’s a big reason for her success. She’s been such a force for this program and role model for younger players.” — Chaska coach Tara Seifert


Along the way, Mallory Heyer de-emphasized her individual goals. Team became the focus.

Today she’s caught in both worlds. Heyer, a 6-1 forward who just completed her fifth season in a row as Chaska’s leading scorer and rebounder, is the Star Tribune’s 2021-22 Metro Player of the Year in girls’ basketball.

She’s also lumped in with a new, higher-profile team.

Gophers women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen, knowing the importance of packing her roster with top local talent, saw Heyer as a likely piece of her puzzle and offered her a scholarship.

A few days later, Eden Prairie’s long, athletic swing forward, Nia Holloway, got the call from Whalen. Soon after, so did dynamic Wayzata guard Mara Braun. Smooth, strong Hopkins guard Amaya Battle filled out the Gophers’ Class of 2022 local recruiting package not long after. It’s considered the highest-rated recruiting class in team history.

The potential of the foursome, joined with the notion that finally many of the top players who had so consistently left home were staying put, energized local fandom. Talk of one of the players nearly always included a reference to the other three. Four players, one face.

The university has labeled them “the Fab Four.” Heyer just calls them “roomies. Because we’re all going to room together next year.”

“I think it’s really cool,” she said. “We still kind of have our individual identities. We’re all great high school players, but we’re going to go and make something happen at the U together.”

Heyer’s anticipation of the next step in her basketball life fits in with her selfless character, said Chaska basketball coach Tara Seifert, who has witnessed it firsthand.

“She’s really a team-first kid,” Seifert said. “It’s never about ‘me.’ She’s a humble leader, and that’s a big reason for her success. She’s been such a force for this program and role model for younger players.”

Heyer finished her high school career with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. This season she averaged 19.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. She also spent the fall as a standout on the front line for a successful volleyball team despite being the only team member who played the sport part-time.

Following the Hawks’ magical 2021 Class 4A basketball championship, which she calls “one of the best experiences of my life,” she was determined to improve her game, both to attempt to repeat and to prepare for the next level.

She went outside.

“I’ve always been super tall, so I’ve just been stuck in the post,” she said. “But when I go to college, that won’t be the case. So this season I shot a lot of threes. And I’ve been working on getting to the basket more.”

She’d always had a soft touch, but with a Big Ten-level schedule beckoning, it was time to make it a weapon.

“She’s always been a consistent scorer, but the outside-inside game is something she really worked on,” Seifert said. “She’s a hard worker. She put in a lot of time to make her outside shot more of a weapon.”

The enhancement to her game, and another season averaging a double-double in points and rebounds, didn’t pay off in another state championship. The Hawks were ousted from the Section 2 playoffs in the semifinals by eventual champ Shakopee.

Not the way Heyer hoped to end her high school career, but ending one stage of her life simply means the next one starts a little sooner.

“I wasn’t happy about losing, but I’ve got a lot to look forward to,” she said. “I’m excited to take that next step.”


Past Star Tribune Metro Players of the Year

2021: Maya Nnaji, Hopkins
2020: Paige Bueckers, Hopkins
2019: Bueckers, Hopkins
2018: Bueckers, Hopkins
2017: Gabi Haack, Elk River
2016: Taylor Koenen, Shakopee
2015: Madison Guebert, Eastview
2014: Chase Coley, Minneapolis Washburn
2013: Nia Coffey, Hopkins
2012: Marissa Janning, Watertown-Mayer
2011: Rachel Banham, Lakeville North
2010: Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North
          Banahm, Lakeville North
2009: Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South
2008: Hill, Minneapolis South
2007: Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central
2006: Jenna Smith, Bloomington Kennedy
2005: Ashley Ellis-Milan, St. Paul Central
2004: Leslie Knight, Hopkins
2003: Liz Podominick, Lakeville
          Jamie Broback, Eastview
2002: Podominick, Lakeville
2001: April Calhoun, Robbinsdale Armstrong
1999: Mauri Horton, Minneapolis North
1998: Tamara Moore, Minneapolis North
1997: Carolyn Moos, Blake
1996: Moos, Blake
1995: Sally Albers, Apple Valley
          Linda Shudlick, Apple Valley
1994: Kay Schmidt, Bloomington Kennedy
1993: Tracy Henderson, Minneapolis Henry
1992: Cheri Stafford, Blaine
1991: Shannon Loeblein, St. Paul Harding
1990: Loeblein, St. Paul Harding
1989: Stacy Carver, Buffalo
1988: Margaret Nowlin, Cretin-Derham Hall
1987: Mya Whitmore, Hill-Murray
1986: Jennifer Hall, Burnsville
1985: Janet Cobbs, Concordia Academy

 

 

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