Like many high school athletes during the current pandemic, Katie Beyer found herself having to adjust to a brand-new recruiting process this spring.

Gone were the official visits and in-person campus tours. In their place were a myriad of virtual interactions.

But Beyer was able to adapt to the process and made the decision to commit to the Valpo women’s basketball program on a Zoom call with the coaching staff and her parents in April, officially signing her name on the dotted line last week.

“During the pandemic, I was interacting with the coaches throughout phone calls and texts and had gotten to know them better through that,” Beyer said. “The more I talked to them and learned more about the team, I knew that Valpo would be a great place for me.”

While Beyer might have been unable to visit campus this spring, she did have some familiarity already with the program and the campus.

“[Not being able to visit] was not a big issue for me, because I had been on the campus before when I attended a basketball camp last summer,” Beyer said. “I also was able to use the virtual tours online to look at the school again.”

And beyond that, if Beyer ever needed to know more about Valpo or the basketball program, all she had to do was get a hold of her former high school teammate, Ava Interrante — a freshman on the team this year.

“I had already been interested in Valpo and had a pretty good idea about the energy and what the coaches at Valpo were like, but I did talk to Ava a little bit as to how her recruitment process went and why she committed to Valpo,” Beyer said. “I am also super excited to play with Ava once again and get wins just like we did in high school!”

In fact, Beyer and McHenry [Ill.] H.S. have totaled 43 wins over the last two years. Beyer — who Valpo head coach Mary Evans called “a strong and physical presence”, “a really skilled player who can shoot the three as well as play with her back to the basket” and “a tremendous rebounder and a really tough, hard-working player” — has seen improvement on the court each season with the Warriors, earning All-Area honors last year and leading her conference in both scoring and rebounding.

Off the court, Beyer plans to enroll in Valpo’s College of Nursing and Health Professions as a nursing major, a choice which has its roots close to home.

“I have always wanted to become a nurse because my mom is a nurse and she loves it,” Beyer said. “Another reason is that I want to help people. I was influenced even more by taking the medical classes at my high school, which I felt were very interesting. I am also a huge fan of Grey's Anatomy and watched all 16 seasons about 3 times. It feels great to be going into a school that has a great nursing program, and it gives me confidence that a lot of student-athletes have been successful in the program as well.”

Whether it’s on or off the hardwood, when asked what she would bring to the Valpo program, the theme in Beyer’s response was simple: growth.

“I think that I will contribute to the team’s energy and will push not only myself, but my teammates as well, to get better every day,” Beyer said. “One attribute about myself is that I work very hard and will try my best to get better every single day — not only on the court, but also in the classroom.”