Heredia to take skills to Jacksonville State
Cary-Grove senior Abbey Heredia kept looking at schools after her initial college visit to Jacksonville State (Ala.), but no other school had the same pull.
Heredia visited Jacksonville State when she was a junior and committed to the NCAA Division I school Tuesday. Gamecocks coach Rick Nold will be getting C-G’s career and single-season assist leader, a player who has started four years in high school.
“It was the first school I visited and I fell in love with the campus, the girls and the coaches,” said Heredia, a 5-foot-8 setter. “There was just something about Jacksonville that stuck with me. It came down to Murray State and Jacksonville. I really liked Murray, and it was about half as far away, but something in my heart told me Jacksonville was the right place to go.”
Interestingly, the player Heredia likely will succeed as the Gamecocks’ setter is Crystal Lake South graduate Brooke Schumacher, who is a junior this season. Heredia, a Northwest Herald All-Area second team selection last season, set the Trojans’ school record for single-season assists (938) her sophomore year, then passed the career assist record last year.
She started her senior season with 2,669 career assists.
“She has great intelligence on the court and knows what to do to get the job done,” C-G coach Patty Langanis said. “She’s able to improvise on the court. Many times I’ll think, ‘How did she come up with that shot?’ She doesn’t have to be told things.”
Heredia played varsity volleyball and softball as a freshman, but her schedule with Sky High Volleyball Club the last two seasons did not allow her to play softball. She also looked at D-I schools Georgia State and Tennessee-Martin, along with D-II Lewis University.
Fiedorowicz will visit Illinois: Normally, it would not make news that a football recruit was visiting the school to which he had committed, but Johnsburg senior C.J. Fiedorowicz’s situation is different.
Earlier this week, message boards at the University of Iowa caught wind that Fiedorowicz, one of the top-rated tight end prospects in the nation, was coming to Iowa City to see the Hawkeyes’ homecoming game Saturday against Michigan.
Fiedorowicz had planned on attending that game, his mother, LeeAnn, said Wednesday, until a call Tuesday night from Illinois offensive line coach Joe Gilbert, who also had heard of Fiedorowicz’s plans.
Fiedorowicz now will attend Illinois’ homecoming game Saturday against Michigan State. He has an official visit to Champaign set for Dec. 12. He has not made any official visits to any schools, and was considering Iowa, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Notre Dame before committing to Illinois in July.
