Oberlin’s Alyssa Van Vleet to play basketball in Michigan

A Kansas high school basketball player who thought she was done with the sport when her senior year concluded two years ago, has signed a letter of intent to continue her college career at a four-year school. McCook Community College sophomore Alyssa Van Vleet will play basketball next season at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich.

As a high school senior at Decatur Community, Van Vleet said when her season ended in February of 2020, she was ready to move on and just be a college student. Then a few months later, barely two weeks before school started, MCC Coach Pritchett reached out to her and offered her a chance to play at MCC.

Pritchett said he first noticed Van Vleet when he was an assistant with the MCC Men, and watched Decatur Community's games in the MCC summer leagues. At the time she was a "scrawny, five-foot freshman."

"She has grown up and matured quite a bit since then and it's been something special to watch over the years," he said.

In her first year with MCC, the 5-10 guard played in 24 games – mostly "spot duty," scoring 55 points for the season. Known as a 3-point specialist in high school, she made just 13 shots from beyond the 3-point line in her first year at MCC. She found the college game to be more fast-paced, better competition.

"As a freshman, I came in very unprepared," she said. "After last season, I really thought I'd be done playing basketball after McCook."

She also admits that she really didn't take it seriously until last summer when she worked out with Coach Pritchett, whom she credits with helping her rediscover her love of the game.

With a renewed enthusiasm for basketball she was looking forward to the start of the season. Everything she and her coach worked on throughout the summer, carried over to the start of the fall semester and onto the court as the team began fall practices. She also took on a big leadership role on the team. In October she was honored as one of six student-athletes named top teammates of the six sports teams at the college.

"I just wanted to be there for my team on the court and off the court," she said.

But injuries put her on the bench when her teammates started the season with a pair of home games Nov. 5-6, and two other times during the year.

"It was hard because I just wanted to be on the court, and get to know my teammates and how they play," she said. "But it did help me become a better leader on the sidelines because I could see what I needed to do when I came back to help each and every one of them."

When the Oberlin made it back onto the court in the team's third game, she ended up playing in 23 of MCC's 31 games and averaged 9.4 points, and 4.7 rebounds per game. She was 36 of 103 from the 3-point line (35 percent) and made 47 of 52 free throw attempts on the season.

She said one of her favorite memories of the season was being down 17 points at Trinidad State on Jan. 22 but responding with a fourth-quarter come back to win 66-63. MCC went 19-12 on the year.

For her career Van Vleet scored 272 points and 151 rebounds in 47 games, is a career 36.3 percent field goal shooter.

She finished the season as the nation's third best free-throw shooter at 90.4 percent. She was also named to the all-Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference team.

 "I was just so impressed with how much work she put in over the summer to get where she's at right now." Pritchett said. "She went from not wanting to play college basketball to now having three, four, five offers from four-year schools."

She said during the season, a friend of hers in Michigan thought she would be a good fit for that program, and encouraged her to reach out to the coach, who was interested. She took a visit in January and was sold. She's excited about the small-campus feel of the NAIA Division II school, the big-city atmosphere of Ann Arbor, and she liked how she was welcomed by the coach and players. (She did have to concede that MCC has better facilities.)

"I wanted to go somewhere that would push me to be better and work on the things I needed to improve on," she said. A business major at MCC, she plans to continue that field in Michigan. She will be 15 hours away from her grandmother Pam in Oberlin, whom she lives with. She knows it will be a big adjustment but knows it is all part of the process.

She said she is also going to miss her teammates and particularly miss the relationship she's built with her coach.

"Coach P. listens to me and really cares about my opinion and he's always there for me whether it's about basketball, or life," she said.

"Having her here – a local girl – who's put in a lot of work in to be able to have this opportunity at a four-year school is something special," Pritchett said. "That is a testament to the amount of work she put in and the dedication she has. I'm super proud of her."