Last season, former Decorah High School basketball player Ashley TeKippe broke the single season record with 79 blocked shots for the Luther College women's basketball team.  Now, in her senior season, she has shown no signs of slowing down.  “It means a lot to me to be able to have that honor.  At the same time, I have to give my teammates a lot of credit.  I would have never gotten that opportunity without my teammates help.”  She has been averaging 11 points and 8 rebounds a game this season.  In her junior year and beginning of her senior season, she has been more efficient day in and day out.  “I try to bring the intensity every day, to work hard with my teammates and to be a strong team player.  What I think it comes down to is work ethic.  I try to put in my time to learn as much as I can from my teammates and my coaches.”  That is what has made her become a team leader.

However, her basketball career at Luther College didn’t start like this.  "Coming out of high school, I was just excited to have the opportunity to play four years at Luther with a great coaching staff and great teammates.  To be around the Luther atmosphere was really exciting.  If somebody would have said to me in high school when I started college that this is what would happen to me in my senior season, I probably would have laughed.  It’s been wonderful, I could have never dreamed of anything like this.”

Her success at Luther wasn’t immediate.  Nothing was really expected of her when she started.  She benefited by observing upperclassmen her first two years at Luther.  “I really tried to take advantage of that.  I learned new moves, new shooting touches, new things like that, to help me out as I progressed all the way through.  I learned as much as I could, put that into my practice and really put that into the games.”  Her love for the game could have also have been a contributing factor to her success.  “I have a passion and dedication for the game, not only to play it but to study it and learn it.  So the more time I get to spend on the basketball court, that right there is motivation for me, to have that opportunity to walk out and step out on that court with my teammates.  I compete as hard for my teammates more than anything else.”

Some of the things TeKippe really enjoys are the coaching and team relationships she has.  “My teammates are my friends and my family.  I’ve been surrounded by these guys everyday, and just been able to have fun.  It is two plus hours a day being with my friends.  I love every minute of it."

After Ashley TeKippe’s career is over at Luther, she plans to attend the University of Iowa to be a medical student next fall.

Luther’s head women's basketball coach Jane Hildebrand has seen Ashley grow from a freshman to now a key player as a senior.  “It has been great to have Ashley.  She’s an extremely hard worker.  She came in here with the vision as a freshman.  She’s accomplished a lot of goals.  She really works hard in her leadership ability, trying to make everybody feel part of the team.  She’s very supportive of any decisions.  She takes any kind of criticism.  She has been a very coachable individual."

Coach Hildebrand has reached her own milestone recently by getting her 400th career victory this season. Even though she says it doesn’t mean that much, she does admit over the years as a head coach she has worked with a lot of great young women.  “They have had the same dreams, goals and aspirations that I had.  I give them the credit.  They are the ones out on the court doing all the hard work.  They are the ones that had the same vision of the program that I had.”

Coach Hildebrand has had overwhelming success in her first few years at Luther in the late 80’s and early 90’s, where she started to turn the program around, and getting to the NCAA tournament multiple times. Getting to the Final Four in 1992, she said was a big milestone.  She also had her share of Kodak All-Americans over the years.  Coach Hildebrand’s roots go back to Wichita, Kansas where she was a physical education teacher.  She then moved to Omaha to help raise three children.  After that she moved to Decorah for the assistant coaching job before taking over the head coaching job.

Coach Hildebrand explains some of the things she has learned from taking over the job. “Patience is a virtue. Nothing happens overnight, you have to patient in what you are doing.  I tried to develop and grow young women and develop friends and relationships that last over a lifetime.  It’s not all about the wins and losses, but what happens in between the lines in trying to develop young people."

Here is Luther’s remaining schedule

Jan. 30 Buena Vista University at Storm Lake 6:00 p.m.
Feb. 2 Cornell at Mount Vernon 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 9 Simpson at home 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 13 University of Dubuque at Dubuque 6:00 p.m.
Feb. 16 Loras at Dubuque 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 20 Wartburg at home 6:00 p.m.
Feb. 23 Central at home 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 26 IIAC Tournament - Top 6 Teams TBA
Feb. 28 IIAC Tournament Semifinals TBA
Mar. 1 IIAC Tournament Championship TBA.