Crookston, Minn.-- For Minnesota Crookston women's basketball senior Caitlin Michaelis, basketball was always a part of life. The daughter of two college basketball greats at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who went on to both be high school basketball coaches at Marshfield High School in Wisconsin, she always was on a basketball court growing up. From first learning that basketball was a love of hers and not just a sport her parents loved, to choosing to attend the University of Minnesota Crookston and now finishing up her basketball career, through it all Michaelis has remained grounded and has learned the true worth of being a college basketball student-athlete.

Michaelis first arrived on campus at Minnesota Crookston in the Fall of 2015. Her path to Northwest Minnesota wasn't a certainty from the get go because of the distance from her hometown of Marshfield, Wis., which is 460 miles away. Eventually Michaelis chose that playing basketball for the Golden Eagles and getting a U of M degree was the right choice for her.

"I remember getting the first call from Minnesota Crookston, and I didn't know where it was. I looked it up on the map and said, 'oh wow that is really far away'. So I came on the visit, and I wasn't sure because of how far it was from home. At the time there were some people that were close to me in my life that were going through some health problems. I just realized I should take the chances to do the things that I love while I still have them. I love basketball, so I was able to continue on from high school, that is truthfully what led me here."

Michaelis immediately joined a team at Minnesota Crookston that was on the peak of their success. The Golden Eagles were coming off a 14-14 season and their first-ever home playoff game at Lysaker Gymnasium and a trip to the NSIC/Sanford Health quarterfinals at the beautiful Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. Michaelis was joined on the team by several all-time greats for the Golden Eagles, Michaelis quickly learned what it was to be a great leader and great teammate.

"I definitely got lucky playing under two really great leaders in Katrina (Nordick) and Alexa (Thielman)," said Michaelis. "They really took me under their wing and I'm still close to them to this day. It gave me a glimpse into what I want to be as a leader and what I wanted to embody because I wanted to be a leader that other players wanted to follow.  To have them there at the beginning and to be able to see what success looks like and to be able to see what it took to be successful in this league day in and day out. I saw how difficult that was right from the get-go. I knew that I had big shoes I had to fill. It kind of set me up with a lot of goals, but with a lot of good leadership that I could look to."

Michaelis also took away how to play the game from Thielman, who was a similar player as she was focused on hitting the three-ball and getting to the hoop to score. In addition, Thielman was a facilitator for the team as she helped to create for her teammates, something that Michaelis wanted to get better at. Most importantly, she admired Thielman's toughness and tried to learn how she could mimic that quality as Michaelis continues to grow as a player.

"Alexa was just tough," Michaelis said. "Every day she was just tough as nails. Her ability to shoot at a high percentage is just something that is just difficult to be able to do. For her to do it all the time consistently, that is something I really looked up to and really strived to become. She was undersized and she was tough, and she didn't let that get to her. She took the advice that Coach Roysland gave her and she used it to her advantage and she didn't let it affect her game."

Michaelis began to make the turn to becoming a better scorer and to become a leader for the team as she started her junior season as older players had now graduated and she was now being asked to be a bigger factor in the team's success. When it came down to it, it was time to channel what she had seen in Alexa and become tougher, to be a scorer, and to facilitate for those around her.

"I think a lot of came with a mindset. When I was younger there were a lot of players that were more seen as scorers. That summer I tried to switch my mindset and just get tougher. To be a scorer and to be a facilitator and one of those big players, it is more mental than it is physical. You have to be able to come out every day with the confidence that you can do it because it is hard to do it every day. That was the biggest thing for me was the switch in my mentality. To come in and just relieve yourself of pressure and to just really play free."

Michaelis has done just that as she has been one of the team's leading scorers the last two seasons, averaging 10.9 points per game as a junior, and 10.8 points per game coming into the first round of the 2018-19 NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament as a senior. In addition to her success on the court, Michaelis has been a 4.0 student-athlete, earning countless accolades including NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction, Google Cloud Academic All-District, and NSIC All-Academic. She has been the definition of a student-athlete, which has been a focus of hers as he tries to be seen as a role model for not only the work she is putting in on the court, but also in the classroom.

"With Minnesota Crookston, you are getting a U of M degree and that is just a phenomenal degree to have," Michaelis said. "You get a smaller class here and the professors are great about working with you. Especially with athletics being gone a lot. It has been an awesome experience to be a student-athlete and I feel it comes with a sense of pride. You want to represent your university well. That was always important to me and academics have always been important to me. I wanted to embody a student-athlete and be a role model for kids not just in the gym, but in the classroom, as well because at the end of the day you are not going to play basketball forever. You are going to go on to a job and do what you are going to do, and hopefully you find your passion. I just wanted to be that kind of leader for this team and also set myself up for a future in teaching, which I am really excited for."

Though she has found success on the court, one of the biggest takeaways that Michaelis has had through the journey is that it isn't about the wins or the losses or the team's success, it is about getting to play a game you love with your best friends.

"I always try to remind myself that no matter what happens at practices or games, at the end of the day I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to do things with my body that no everyone can and to get to share these experiences with my best friends," Michaelis said.

Basketball has always been an important to Michaelis, whether she was hearing about the accolades of her dad Craig, who is in the Athletics Hall of Fame at Miami University and was a 1,000-point scorer and the school's only three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American. She also heard about her mom Heidi, who was also a 1,000 point scorer at Miami University, and admired the college basketball players she saw watching games at TV. Though she thought she knew what it meant to be a student-athlete through these experiences, Michaelis has truly discovered through her time what it really means and takes to be a college basketball player at this level.

"When you're young I feel like you think that college sports are glamorous because all you see is what is on TV and in reality they are a grind – late nights and early mornings. You never feel like you got enough sleep, long bus rides, and at the end of it all, it's not about the games won and lost, it's about the journey, the people you meet, the experiences you go through together and the person you become through all the ups and downs."

It has been an incredible journey for Michaelis, and Golden Eagle fans are excited to see it continue, whether in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament or with the life this great leader and even better person will surely make for herself after she gets the U of M degree and sets herself down a great path as a professional.