Tami Dillavou won't remember the highs and lows. She won't think about the trickle of all-conference and all-state mentions. Even the big milestones won't be the first thing that pops into her head.
But there is one thing she is sure she will remember about her youngest daughter, Shae.
"We really enjoy watching her, and you always want your kids to do the best," Tami said. "The times that I feel in awe of her is when I see her be an extremely great teammate."Â
Shae was one of the most dominant hitters on the volleyball court, a fierce post player in basketball and one of the faster sprinters and top high jumpers at Forest City High School throughout her four-year career.
Yet it was her kindness and selflessness that stood out.
"Shae was always encouraging, she's so nice," said teammate and best friend Regan Helgeson. "It was so much fun. She's just a great teammate and friend. She built me up."
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If anyone needed their spirits lifted, Shae was there. When Helgeson sat out her entire junior year recovering from a knee injury, Shae would send her inspiring texts.
"I can only say outside looking in, not from the perspective of a high school girl," Indians head volleyball coach Lacy Jerome said. "As an adult, I would put her on my team in anything in life. I think she's an amazing human."
Shae was a multi-sport standout, but there was a lot more on her plate when she was a kid. Eventually, she had to find balance.
And that proved to tough at first.
"You can't do everything," Shae stated.
One injury later
Shae was an active kid. She had two older sisters, Josilin and Brea, to hang out and play with. She always hung out with her older sisters' friends.
"We all have different relationships with each other, but we're all close," Brea said. "As she grew up, she started hanging with us more. Once Josilin went to college, me and Shae started to hang out a lot more."
When Ty, the youngest of the four siblings and the only boy, was around eight or nine years old, he would have his friends over and they'd play pickup basketball.
Guess who would show up?
"(Shae) would always come out there, basketball, football, whatever it was," Ty said. "I don't know if we ever finished a game of one-on-one because we'd get too mad at each other."
Shae has vivid memories about those days. Even as a pre-teen, she always thought of herself as pretty physical for her age. So she wasn't surprised she was able to be dominant.
"Ty and I spent a lot of our times outside," Shae said. "Just because I was a year or two older than them, I did have a strength advantage. I loved that competitive factor."
For awhile, Shae did every activity under the sun. Along with the sports, she also did dance. By fifth or sixth grade, she added in club basketball.
All that mileage on her body eventually caught up to her.
Preparing for her eighth-grade softball season, Shae had aspirations to pitch. She also was balancing a club basketball schedule with a full summer of softball.
She fractured her foot, the most nagging and severe injury she suffered, before she took her first steps in the Forest City High School hallways.
"In my mind, it was like train to stay healthy," Shae said. "It wasn't terrible. It was something that put me in a boot for six-to-eight weeks. It was the most annoying."
Rehab was a grind, but it did lead Shae and her parents to talk about easing up her activities.
Or from suffering burnout while juggling too many things at once.
"We just talked about prioritizing," Shae's father, Zach Dillavou said. "That was really hard for her, but it needed to happen."
Eventually, she settled on volleyball and track to go along with basketball as she began her freshman year. The rest is history.
Oozing potential
Shae decided against playing club volleyball and was not as experienced as some of her teammates. It didn't affect her mindset.
One of the first practices in August of 2018, Shae was a pretty lethal hitter.
"She can be shown things once or twice and pick it up quicker than other people sometimes," Jerome said. "I knew she could figure it out."
That was the singular focus for Shae's first two years, a role she was more than comfortable doing. Shae knew she wasn't as volleyball-savvy in terms of on-court experience.
She was a sponge when she played with Kelsey Koch and Cora Holland, a pair of seniors who were high-level attackers and the reason Shae wanted to play volleyball.
But she was torn.
"In middle school, I wasn't that great," Shae said. "The cross country coach wanted me to do cross country. When I started going to those open gyms and saw Kelsey Koch hit the ball I was like, 'I'm going to do that.'"
She notched 71 kills as a freshman, then ballooned to 223 as a sophomore to tie for the team lead with Kaylee Miller. Shae led the Indians in kills with 227 as a junior, posted the second-highest dig total with 188 and was one of a handful of players with a serving percentage north of 90.
Shae wanted to be an all-around player for her senior year. She already had established herself as one of the best players in the Top of Iowa West. Through her years as an underclassmen, she balanced playing some games on the front row and others on the in back row for the JV team.
"The timing worked out, and it was kind of her suggesting it," Jerome said. "We knew we needed a couple defensive players, so I think we would have considered her as an option.
"It doesn't hurt that she advocated for herself."
It proved to be the right move.
In her final season in a volleyball uniform, Shae upped her kill numbers to a career high 253 while also recording a hitting efficiency of .230. She notched 189 digs, 35 blocks and was a 95% server.
She led the Indians to the Class 3A regional final against Sheldon, a perennial top team.
They grabbed a set against the Orabs, but it wasn't enough. Still, Shae left her volleyball career with nothing but pride.
"Getting to that game was super important," she said. "It stinks, but I'm glad we were able to make it."
Opponents in the TIC-West may not miss her, but Jerome certainly will. It will be the first time in her years as Forest City's head coach Dillavou that won't take the court.
It's hard for her to fathom.
"She fit every role that she's been given," Jerome said. "Just not able to put an amount of word to it. It just won't be the same."
'Ball is still life'
Basketball has been Shae's passion from the jump. She played club ball. She wanted to be a dominant presence down low, and she was. She wanted to get exposure at camps, so she got exposure.
At a camp hosted by Wartburg during a summer during elementary school, Shae took a selfie with a busted lip and blood down her shirt. The caption?
"Ball is still life."
"In seventh grade, I got more serious about it," Shae said. "I had more time with it. It was something I felt so comfortable doing. Can I out work you? Can I out defend you?"
Tami and Zach were more than willing to tag along to whatever basketball tournament Shae was going to. Zach was an assistant coach for the Indians throughout Shae's career.
"She was ready to play more than the school tournaments we were doing," Zach said.
Matt Erpelding came to Forest City from Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, so he wasn't fully aware of what kind of player Shae was coming into high school.
He got his first glimpse that summer in 2018.
"Very talented for her age," Erpelding said. "I knew she was strong. Pretty well advanced; her skill set was certainly above average."
Similar to volleyball, Shae's role early on was specified to one area. For basketball, it was rebounding.
She grabbed a team-high 169 rebounds as a freshman and started 16 games. Most of her shots came in the paint, and she led the Indians in field goal percentage (48.7) and was third in scoring (8.1 points per game).
Her role expanded slightly as a sophomore, and she paced Forest City in both scoring and rebounding. Shae also shot 53% from the field and finished with a team-high 45 steals.
"I feel like I had talent above me, but I wish I would have done more," Shae said. "If I had the season back, I'd love to re-do it."
Erpelding knew her role would only expand in her final two years as a prep. So he added a few more wrinkles to his offense.
On a handful of occasions per game, Shae would bring the ball up. Her dribbling and ball-handling skills as a post player who is just under 6-foot even was second-to-none.
"Just the maturing into the high school basketball, making that next step," Erpelding said. "That mental aspect of it was probably the biggest hurdle. It was just going to get better."
That was evident this winter as her 84 assists was tops on the Indians' roster, the first time in Shae's career she was the lead passer. And she still posted a new career-high in scoring (15.5 ppg) and rebounding (9.4 rpg).
Her accolades were first team all-conference, third team all-state by the IPSWA and a first team all-area player.
"I knew my role was going to get even larger, and everyone knew I loved basketball," Shae said. "How hard I worked kind of set the tone, and everyone followed. I wanted to see them be successful, too."
She made a little history along the way.
Against Eagle Grove, Shae became just the third girl in Forest City 5-on-5 history to eclipse 1,000 career points. She knew she was close, but didn't want to force anything.
Neither did Erpelding.
"I'm not one to change the ways we do things," he said.
Still, the accomplishment was breathtaking.
"It speaks to the time that it takes, and it is rare," Shae said. "It was a really fun night."
Brea never got that elusive four-digit number. Yet she knew Shae would.
"She's even more competitive and really driven," Brea stated. "I was really happy for her."
Still, that season was marred by the phrase "what if." The Indians were rolling in the first half of the season, with a signature victory over Clear Lake at home. They were ranked in the top 15 in Class 3A.
Then the second half of the season started and Forest City went through injury after injury. Its starting lineup of Dillavou, Helgeson, Colette Loges, Emma Anderson and Jaden Jerome rarely played together after Christmas break.
That caused a lot of reshuffling. Even though the Indians stayed above water and got to the regional final, there are people who think the season could have ended differently.
"We can't predict the future, but there was definitely a chance," Helgeson said.
"I think it is frustrating to look back and play the what-if game," Shae added. "I felt we were (a top-eight team) and I just felt like we played opponents that were top-eight as well and we beat them."
"We were really starting to climb up that peak," Tami stated.
The Indians were dealt with facing Brooklyn Meyer and 3A No. 2 West Lyon in the regional final. For much of the second quarter, the Wildcats were on fire from beyond the arc.
It was a nine-point lead for West Lyon at the half, and it never let Forest City within reach in the final two periods.
"We played about as well as we could for the most part," Erpelding said. "If we stay healthy, we probably get a different draw."
That was the most heartbreaking early exit of Shae's career. Yet just like volleyball, she exited the gym for the final time with zero regrets.
"I am proud of myself and my teams, my coaches and everyone that has helped me along the way," Shae said. "It made me a better player and more reflective on myself."
Embracing challenges
Of all the things her father watched Shae do at Forest City, high jump was the one he felt she loved doing just as much as basketball and volleyball.
"She really worked hard at that," Zach stated. "Individually, that's where I see her being the most driven. There's always another challenge."
Track was a sport Shae did in middle school, and the Indians had a lot of success. They were scoring a ton of team points, so Shae thought it would easily translate to high school.
She was right.
The Indians were one of the best teams in the TIC-West as they won back-to-back conference championships, the latest on their home track at Waldorf University.
"When it was time for high school track, I was really excited," Shae said.
Shae would do any event to help the team. She ran the 100, 400-meter relay, high jump and 1,600 in middle school. Tami recalls Forest City head coach Jason Sopko thinking Shae may need to throw shot put.
Whatever Shae needed to do to help, she was all-in.
"I'm sure she wasn't thrilled about running the mile," Tami said.
Not very often is one of the tallest girls in school also one of the fastest. Yet Shae was the anchor of the Indians' 400 and 800 relays and was a conference champion in the open 200.
Her strides give her a leg up on other competitors, but her speed was a vast improvement.
"She put a lot of time into the weight room. She put in the extra time," Sopko said. "She's a strong runner. It was a nice fit for her, and she embraced that role."
Shae's primary focus was high jump. She was a state qualifier for three years (sophomore year canceled due to COVID-19) and leaped to a new personal best of 5 feet, 2 inches at the conference meet.
That height was a nuisance for Shae to clear. Eventually she did, and it snared her a title.
"It's completely different from anything else I've ever done," Shae said. "You always end up failing. Even if you win, you knock the bar down at some point. I had been waiting and hoping for that for a long time."
Sopko echoes what everyone in Shae's inner circle has repeatedly said: Shae's leadership and accountability will be hard to replace.
He'll have to do so next spring.
"She'll still carry some weight around our program for years to come," Sopko said. "She's been a big part of everything. We'll definitely miss her."
Small town girl bound for the big city
As Shae pondered what her college plans would look like, basketball was always her focal point. It didn't matter the level; all she wanted was a coach to take a chance on her.
The five schools she visited were Simpson College, Grand View, DMACC, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Briar Cliff.
"After my junior year, it was like go time," Shae said. "It was set after my AAU season finished, I don't want to be done yet."
Brea was in her final year of playing college basketball at Wartburg. She saw how much stress her younger sister was having in finalizing a decision.
"I just tired to tell her to make sure she asked all her questions, really liked the coach and had a really good feel about it," Brea said. "You got to make sure you're happy there."
Ultimately, UMSL won out, and all of a sudden a girl raised in Forest City will trek to St. Louis and start her college journey.
"It was kind of like an adventurous opportunity," Shae said. "The campus was nice, it is big, fun to walk around. As I went on my visit, I felt excited to be a part of it."
Despite being seven hours from home, Zach and Tami can't wait to see her play. They haven't figured out what the travel schedule will look like, but they'll be at games.
"Tami and I wanted to support that," Zach said.
Helgeson will miss the best friend she's gotten to be close with since they were children, but more importantly, she's ready to see Shae blossom into the player and person she can be.
"I can't explain how thankful I am for her," Helgeson said. "There's not even words to describe how much all of the sports are going to miss her. I inspire to be like that one day."
Even though Brea and Shae never played together, the older Dillavou knows the impact the younger Dillavou had.
"People can look up to her, but I also think the younger girls can look up to her as being a great teammate and a great person," Brea said.Â
Shae won't live in Forest City anymore, but she'll always consider it home. From the people to the coaches, the city has accepted her and gotten to see the type of person and athlete she is.
And that's what she'll remember about her years walking on the court or on the track as an Indians athlete.
"People will remember you how you treat them a lot more than how you performed or acted," Shae said. "I mostly remember the great memories I had with them. Sports are only going to last so long, and if I see that person in 20 years, I hope they remember me in good ways."
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Zach Martin is a sports reporter for the Globe Gazette. Reach him via email at zachary.martin@globegazette.com and follow him on Twitter @zach_martin95.