When Ashley Hagedorn walked on to the ISU women’s basketball team in May of 2012, an 18-year-old dream was about to come true.

Ashley’s mother, Beth, said the goal of becoming a Cyclone started at the age of 3 years old.

“It starts with a little girl at age 3 going to watch her uncle, ‘Special K’ Steve Krafcisin, who was coaching at Iowa State,” Beth said. “She has always wanted to go there.”

It was something similar to a Cinderella story for Ashley, who went to DMACC for her first two years of college coming out of I-K-M Manning High School.

“[Iowa State] didn’t want her out of high school, and she had two full-ride offers,” Beth said.

Ashley had full-ride scholarship offers from Saint Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and the University of Sioux Falls (S.D.). But Ashley wanted a Cyclone jersey, some way, somehow. 

Beth said Ashley went to Krafcisin and asked if there could ever be a chance of her becoming a Cyclone.

“After my career at DMACC, I got offers from the east side of Iowa, from the west side — I didn’t know where to go,” Ashley said. “Then I talked to coach [Krafcisin] to see if there was any chance I could possibly walk on and he said ‘Yeah, I’ll talk to the coaches and see what they say.’

“Coach Fennelly said ‘Come over for a meeting,’ and met with him, and he [said] ‘You have a jersey here, so take your time on your decision, but you have a jersey here.'”

With the support and experience from the junior college level, Ashley said the time she spent at DMACC helped her land a spot in the cardinal and gold.

“I wasn’t ready for the whole university, huge settings; the smaller stuff was awesome,” Ashley said. “[Former teammates] always come over to see games, and it’s nice to see a familiar face in the crowd every now and then.”

Now that she has settled herself into Iowa State’s lineup and made her presence heard more on the bench than on the court this year, Ashley knows what she will need to do in order to see some minutes on the court next year.

“When she walked on, it was like most walk-ons,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly. “Someone who would add something positive to this program, and maybe not at Hilton every day.”

Fennelly wanted someone who would add culture and atmosphere to his band of players, and that is what he found in Ashley.

Looking down the road to the 2013-14 season, Fennelly touched on where Ashley might find herself among the rest of the team.

“The skill set that Ashley has is she can make baskets,” Fennelly said. “And if you can make baskets and do the things we need you to do, you’ll find some time on the court.”

As Ashley approaches her senior season, she said she has an idea of where she wants her role to be at.

“Senior leadership: Show the freshmen the right things and teach them,” Ashley said. “Be the same, encourage and support.”