Adams assists on and off the court

Senior Aimee Adams has been part of a run of excellence with the University of South Dakota volleyball team that now includes three consecutive Summit League tournament championships.

It’s a level of sustained success that has included meaningful contributions from an ever-expanding group of student-athletes. When seniors graduate, freshmen show up to replace them. The one thing that has stayed the same is that the Coyotes keep winning.

For a player like Adams, if you’re going to be part of an entire career filled with success, it has to start right away. The 6-1 outside hitter from Breda, Iowa, quickly recognized that USD’s Summit League legacy was no accident.

“From the second I got here, my teammates were very welcoming,” Adams said. “They set the tone for how workouts would be, how practices would be and how open gyms would be – they just set the standard very high right away.”

Adams and her teammates have responded by maintaining the standards apparent to her immediately. In the Coyotes’ case, that now includes a 3-0 win over Omaha in last week’s Summit League tournament championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA postseason for the third consecutive year -- and the fourth time since 2018.

On Friday the Coyotes open the NCAA tournament with a match against No. 23 Houston.

“She’s been a very consistent player for us,” said Leanne Williamson, the head coach at USD since 2014. “What’s fun about her is that she’s one of the most unselfish people that we’ve ever had come through the program. She’s very much a team-first person regardless of the situation.”

In conversation with associate head coach Michael Runde recently, Runde predicted how many kills Adams was going to have for an upcoming match. Adams replied “I’m OK with having zero kills as long as we win.”

“She very much wants the team to have success and she wants the program to keep moving forward,” Williamson said. “She continues to do what she needs to do to make that happen.”

Adams grew up the second-youngest of eight children, which may explain some of the unselfishness. She is also an extremely committed nursing major – one of the most demanding and time-consuming academic majors on any college campus.

The combination of Division I volleyball, with its travel and training demands, makes for a hectic student-athlete experience for nursing majors. It is simply not possible to put your heart into both without having a distinctive level of commitment for each.

Fortunately, Adams has plenty of game in that regard.

“Once you get into a career that you love learning about and that you’re passionate about, it makes it a lot easier to do both,” Adams said. “I have so much love for the game of volleyball and so much love for my teammates and my coaches that it’s hard to describe. And when I came here I definitely knew I wanted to be a nurse and they allowed me to do that. A lot of places say no to going to nursing school when you’re playing volleyball in college.”

Two of Adams’ older sisters are nurses. She wanted to be like them – the ultimate compliment for older siblings – so she worked in a nursing home and as a home health aide while in high school. The commitment to a health care career has never wavered since then, even when piled on top of what is essentially a full-time job as a volleyball player.

“I have a passion to take care of people and help solve their problems,” Adams said. “I want them to feel better after they meet me. In that way it’s a very rewarding job.”

When Adams was in fourth grade, her mother signed her up for a youth rec volleyball league. She said she was nearing the 6-foot mark while still in elementary school. Perhaps an exaggeration, but you get the picture.

“I was a couple feet taller than everyone else and I discovered I loved hitting balls over the net,” she said. “I wanted to do everything out there. It’s where my love of the game all started for me.”

By 10th grade – a little later than would be the case for some of her college teammates – she was encouraged to join a club volleyball team. It involved a lot of travel on weeknights for practices but she hung in there and emerged as a Division I prospect

It is with that same resolve this former Carroll Kuemper High School star forges ahead in her next career. She intends to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist, something that requires two years working in an intensive care unit. To this point she has spent time at both Avera and Sanford in Sioux Falls and will spend next summer as an intern for Sanford’s pediatric intensive care unit.

“I really enjoy being around kids,” she said. “I’ve had a chance to be involved in labor and delivery and I absolutely loved that. Honestly I love anything to do with critical care.”

The nursing profession will be getting a winner. Coach Williamson can vouch for that.

“She’s just a good person to be around,” Williamson said. “She’s somebody that people enjoy working with and talking with. I remember listening to her talk about what a nursing career means to her and how driven and determined she is to make that happen. That is the kind of person who fits really well in our program. She wants to be the best version of herself and she wants the team to be the best version of themselves.”