Four-season star

CRESTON — On a recent afternoon, as Creston High School volleyball players were banging balls across the net, Natalie Mostek sat in the nearby school commons and admitted she was having withdrawal.

“I get goosebumps just hearing that,” she said. “It makes me want to be out there, playing again.”

The four-sport Creston star is learning to adjust to a more singular focus now, as a Des Moines Area Community College softball player. The days of moving from one sport to another each season were left behind when she graduated last May.

She ended her high school career with 20 letters, including the sports of volleyball, basketball, track and field and softball, as well as Peppers dance team. She earned all-conference and academic all-conference in each sport, and competed at the state level in both track and softball, ending her Panther career as a member of the Class 4A third-place team in the State Softball Tournament in Fort Dodge.

For her vast array of achievements on that year-round basis, Mostek today is named the 2015 South Central Iowa Female Athlete of the Year by the Creston News Advertiser and Osceola Sentinel-Tribune. Athletes from 11 area schools are considered for the honor.

“It’s awesome!” said the daughter of Jeff and Kit Mostek of Creston, when she was presented the award. “I’ve seen some of the others who got it in the past, so many good athletes. I’m very excited to get it.”

“Good for her. She’s earned it,” said Panther softball coach Mike McCabe, whose teams have won three Hawkeye 10 titles with Mostek behind the plate for four straight years, catching for all-state pitchers Madison Frain and Haylee LaMasters.

“She’s dedicated, committed, hard-working, loyal,” McCabe added. “She’s always going to buy into the bigger picture than her, to what the team is trying to do.”

Twin sisters

Natalie and her twin sister, Maria, are both going on to collegiate sports, but on different paths. Maria will run track and cross country at Northwest Missouri State University while Natalie selected softball as her sport to pursue after high school.

“We kind of established our own identities,” Natalie said. “But it’s great that we can help each other out. Maria made me run with her this morning, and I made her come hit with me. That’s how it worked out.”

Coaches across the board speak of the versatility and competitive drive of the strong, 5-foot-10 Mostek, who at various times has been both a guard and post player in basketball; an all-conference hitter also ranking high on her team in digs and ace serves in volleyball; a runner of distances from 200 meters to 800 meters, even an occasional 1,500 meters, plus the high jump in track; and a slugging catcher in softball whose athleticism may be used at another position in college.

“We needed her behind the plate,” McCabe said, “but there’s no doubt she could have done a great job in the outfield or at first base for us.”

Volleyball rise

Mostek made the first All-Hawkeye 10 team in volleyball, and honorable mention all-state, for a 20-8 team that was the best since coach Polly Luther was a player in the late 1980s. In a conference that produced three state tournament teams, including state champion Harlan, she ranked ninth with 283 kills.

“You never forget some of the things a player like Natalie gives you,” Luther said. “You don’t get athletes like that coming along all the time. In volleyball I have 18 substitutions (per game), and you really appreciate that girl who can play all the way around, and do it well.”

There are aspects of each sport she is leaving behind that will be missed, Mostek acknowledged.

“I love the game of volleyball,” she said. “The action, the quick reaction, who knows what can happen? Making great plays in the moment is exciting. The student section helps give us momentum. We would get so pumped up during those games!”

In basketball, she was part of teams that steadily improved under coaches Larry McNutt and Brent Douma from 6-17 to 9-13 and 12-11 in three seasons of varsity play. Despite missing eight games with a knee injury last winter, she received Hawkeye 10 honorable mention after averaging 12.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. She was also second on the team in steals behind junior Taylor Briley.

“I think I will miss that one the most,” Mostek said. “Just because it’s different, not every athlete does basketball. We have 60 girls out for volleyball, and it cuts down to 20 the next season. It’s like, what happened? We’re the survivors, I guess. It’s such a team sport, you have to rely on your teammates for everything. It’s constant motion and it takes a lot of time to learn all the aspects of the game. You develop a lot of great relationships along the way.”

Mostek battled an abdominal injury her freshman track season and ran only three races. But she quickly became a star during successive years, ending as one of the best middle distance runners the school has produced.

She owns school records in the 800 meters (2:17.64), 4x800 relay (9:40.57) and distance medley relay (4:16.97). She was the only girl from the Hawkeye 10 Conference to win four medals at the 2015 Co-ed State Track Meet. She was undefeated in the 800 meters until the state meet. At the conference meet, she placed second to teammate Breanna Wallace in the high jump, clearing 5-0 for the first time.

When track coach Clay Arnold was asked what word comes to mind when asked about Natalie Mostek, he didn’t hesitate.

"Winner," he said succinctly. "She's just such a great competitor. She'll do whatever it takes to win. She is just tougher than everybody. We put her in the 1,500 one time just to see what she could do, and she ran the third fastest time of anybody here in the last five years! And, only great athletes can be successful in the high jump. She not only has talent and ability, but the work ethic to put it all together."

Mostek said running is not her favorite activity, but she enjoyed the team aspect and the competition the sport provides.

“It’s fun to compete and win,” Mostek said. “Relays were always my favorite.”

Softball thrills

Softball provided some of the biggest thrills in Mostek’s athletic career, starting with the breakthrough regional final victory over No. 1-ranked ADM, providing the program’s first state tourney appearance in 19 years. Capping it off with a third-place finish at state was a rewarding way to finish a high school career, she said.

“Beating ADM was such a highlight,” Mostek said. “We didn’t have doubt, even though we were playing the number one team and we got down 3-0. The bottom of our lineup was great all year, and we got some key hits that night from Shelby Palser and Alyssa Higgins. A big (home run) from Taylor Briley. It was a great team game. To be able to do it, that’s big for our program, and the girls that played here when I was younger. I hope they can go again.”

The Panthers stayed in the Iowa Central Community College dormitories, bonding not only with teammates, but with players from other teams. Mostek was one of eight future DMACC players in the state tourney field.

“That is a week I’ll always remember,” Mostek said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It was a tough (semifinal) loss to Winterset, sure, but they were the better team. What a way to go out, ending our season with a win in the third-place game.”

Mostek ranked ninth in the Hawkeye 10 and second behind LaMasters on the team in batting average (.424). (LaMasters, a standout hitter and pitcher in softball and versatile volleyball back row player, was a South Central Iowa Athlete of the Year finalist as well.)

Mostek also ranked second to LaMasters with 28 runs batted in and hit 12 extra-base hits, including a home run. Her athleticism was evident in stealing 11 bases without getting caught, and she committed only three errors all season. She was a repeat selection on the Hawkeye 10 all-conference first team and received third-team all-state honors in Class 4A as a senior.

Intangibles

Each of Mostek’s coaches lauded her for more than athletic ability. She was one of five class valedictorians, and her dedication in the CHS weight room was legendary. She made herself strong enough to compete with some of the state’s top talents in her class — Jess Schaben of Harlan, Kate Walker and Grace Blomstedt of Red Oak, Serena Parker and Sydney Nielsen of Shenandoah, Jaedra Moses of Clarinda and Maria Dentlinger of Carroll Kuemper. Lewis Central had the formidable volleyball duo of Abby Bergsten and Reghan Coyle that ousted the Panthers in regional play two successive years.

Mostek stood her ground with each of them, usually assigned to guard the opposition’s best player in basketball.

“Natalie competed against exceptional competition in the Hawkeye 10 and was always able to show she was among the best,” Arnold said. “We were lucky to have her. Her confidence level just grew as the years went by. I will be telling young girls, did you see how sports helped Natalie Mostek as a person? Any of those sports, she could have done them in college.”

“Her greatest value to us was the leader that she became,” McCabe said. “She was loyal to her coaches and teammates.”

"Natalie is just one of those kids that you say, that's who I want the young girls to look up to," Luther said, "because she's a good student, she's a good athlete and she makes good choices in life. You don't come across those kids all the time."

“Natalie Mostek epitomizes what every young girl coming up in Creston should try to be like,” summarized Douma, who coached Mostek’s senior season in basketball. “She works so hard in everything she does. She’s prepared herself to compete in the weight room, she’s all-conference in every sport she’s in, good in the classroom and a true character person.

“She is what you want out of every one of your athletes.”