At first glance, there is nothing that makes Maddie Huber stand out.

She was far from the tallest member on the Aberdeen Roncalli volleyball or basketball squads, and she is not among the statewide track and field leaders this spring.

Yet, pick any of those three sports and the contributions Huber made were significant. The senior has a motor that doesn’t stop and a desire to do whatever it takes to help those around her succeed.

“Maddie was a three-year starter, a two time all-conference player, and a player who didn’t get a lot of credit for the success that we had,” said Roncalli girls’ basketball coach Derek Larson.

To fully understand Huber’s mindset, track is not her favorite sport and she could have easily walked away from it this spring. But she didn’t.

“When I first started doing track all the way back in sixth grade, I mainly stayed in track to stay in shape for the other two sports,” Huber said, “but now that I got to my senior year and I don’t have to stay in shape for another sport, we’ll now I’m just doing track because it’s so fun. I’ve made so many friendships with the other schools that you can’t get with the other sports.”

And instead of taking the easy way out. Huber competes in the hurdles and triple jump, arguably two of the toughest events in the sport.

But then again, Huber has never taken the easy way out.

“She was very underrated, especially on the defensive end of the floor,” Larson said. “She was always willing to guard the other team’s best guard every night. She was a person who didn’t care who got the credit as long as we won the game.”

Huber, who racked up more than 1,000 career assists in volleyball, understood her role and knew she was not going to be the center of attention.

“You see the people that get kills. So that’s what people cheer for. Oh great kill,” Huber said. “You can see the people passing it. It’s like, oh they had an awesome pass. I’m just kind of like in the middle. It’s all connected though, because if I don’t a have good pass then the hitter’s not going to get set.”

It was the same thing on the basketball floor. Defensive stoppers seldom get the recognition that they deserve.

Yet, no matter the situation, Huber’s teammates definitely took note and always looked to her for steadiness and leadership.

“I just try to keep myself composed and I’ve heard from other parents or my teammates that they look to me. If I’m calm and collected then my teammates will be calm and collected,” Huber said. “I think that was one thing I focused on this year, especially being a senior, being someone that the younger kids can look up to.”

Along the way there were expectations. High expectations.

The Cavaliers were among the favorites to advance to the state tournament in both volleyball and basketball, and fell one game short in each.

“I think just the reputation that we had, especially in basketball, our sophomore year we were going to have the same team for the next three years,” Huber said. “People are going to be like oh yeah, they’re going to make it to state. This year in basketball and volleyball we were one game away from state.”

However, for Huber, there was always something else to look forward to, the next sport up.

“After volleyball I was like, ugh, too bad. We’ve got basketball left. We can make it in that,” Huber said. “And we knew coming in that we were going to make it as far as we did and even further, we wanted to, but even after that (SoDak 16) game, I felt like me personally, I felt like I left everything out on that court, and I am happy with how I played. Granted, as a team we didn’t play our best, and that ended up with the score that happened, but I was the only senior on that basketball team that had another sport afterwards, and I think that’s different, because I was like, oh it’s fine, I can go to track.”

And for Huber, it was all about the effort just as much as the result.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, with volleyball especially, me being in the front. Not the tallest front row, but I can get up and block a ball,” Huber said. “And I can get up and dump the ball over the net. …. It doesn’t matter what the final score is, but if you give it your all, then you’re going to feel happy about yourself. If everyone has that same mindset and they’re going to give it their all, then you’re most likely going to win.”

Huber, who was voted hardest worker by her teammates in basketball the past two seasons, also tried her hand at music.

Her keen sense of humor came out when describing her experience with band.

“I’ve always had a little taste for music. I’ve been playing piano since like second grade,” Huber said. “All of my cousins have been in band, so it’s like OK, let’s give it a shot and started in fourth grade, and the only instrument I could get a noise out was the saxophone, so I was like OK, guess we’re playing this one.”

That lasted until Huber ended up with the flag corps.

“The reason I wanted to be flags, was because I hated the band uniforms,” Huber said. “I didn’t like the hat.”

She tried twirling a friend’s flag and found out she enjoyed it.

“I would twirl her flag around and I’m like I’m going to try out for these flags,” Huber said, “and then I’ve been doing it since sophomore year.”

Like sports, Huber found there to be challenges in that endeavor as well and met them head on.

“It’s actually a lot harder than people think, because flags at least you have to stay in step and you have to memorize the routine and you have to stay focused,” Huber said, “especially with wind and not trying to hit yourself with the pole. I’ve done that before. It hurts. You get whipped in the face with a wet flag.”

However, nothing to could put a damper on Huber’s competitive spirit. She did not miss a single event in high school because of illness or injury.

She enjoyed the environment at Roncalli, one that brought out her best in whatever she attempted, whether in sports, music or the classroom.

“Being a small school, I’ve made relationships with my teachers that I probably wouldn’t make at a AA school,” Huber said. “I can email my teachers or talk to them about absolutely anything, and the coaches the same way.”

Huber, who will attend Northern State with plans to go into coaching some day, said Roncalli provided an ideal atmosphere.

“Being at a Catholic school is even better,” Huber said, “because we can talk about our faith and I’m also on the retreat team so being able to express my faith to younger kids I think is an advantage. … Having God at the center of everything that we do I think is something that sets us apart from others.”