FRUITPORT – Fruitport’s Izzy Hanson-Wilbur is one of those rare athletes who almost never leaves the headlines.

That’s because she’s one of those rare athletes who is great at three sports, covering all three seasons of the high school athletic calendar.

She has won lots of honors in volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring. She’s always one of the best players on he field or court, and that’s been the case for the past four years, since she broke into varsity early as a super talented freshman.

But what sport does she have the most impact in?

A very strong argument could be made for volleyball, because she’s great at pretty much every aspect of the game.

This season she leads the very successful Fruitport volleyball squad offensively with 338 kills. She is third on the defensive side with 386 digs. She is second on the team with 41 blocks, and third on the roster with 57 service aces.

Because she’s so good at everything, she almost never leaves the court, even while all of her teammates rotate in and out, based on their individual skill sets.

“I feel like it’s pretty rare for a player to be so effective in the front row and back row,” said Fruitport head volleyball coach Samantha Fehler. “It allows her to be a full leader, getting the kills or running the back row.

“I think reaching 1.000 career digs was a testament to her defense, and she reached 1,000 career kills a few weeks ago.

“She hardly comes comes out at all, unless she needs a quick breather. She has played every single set of every single match this season.”

Hanson-Wilbur’s offensive skills have always been a strong suit, and she has always been one of the top scorers through four years of varsity volleyball.

She really stepped it up last year, however, after All-Stater Sadie Haase graduated, leaving a void in the big hitter role.

Haase was pretty tall and used that to her advantage at the net. Hanson-Wilbur is pretty average when it comes to height, but she makes up for it with her athleticism and passion.

“I wanted to be the one to put the ball away when we need it, to lift my teammates up and provide energy,” she said. “It just feels so good, getting that perfect hit, then looking around at all of my teammates going crazy. It’s the best feeling.”

Of course in volleyball, most of the great offensive players leave the court when they rotate away from the net, because their specialty is up front.

But Hanson-Wilbur stays in the match and rotates to the back, where she turns her focus to defense. She is one of several girls on the Trojan roster who are great at diving around and keeping the other teams’ shots from hitting the floor.

She decided to become a defensive player after her freshman year, when she started on the front line, then sat down until she rotated to the front again.

She didn’t care for sitting on the bench, so she joined a club team before her sophomore season, asked if she could play a lot in the back row, and quickly became good at it.

Then she returned to the Fruitport varsity as a sophomore and showed her coaches that she could play both offense and defense.

She also helps to create offensive plays from the back row with her great passing, and can even score from back there, because her shots are still strong enough from that depth.

“I got to know what it felt like to be on the bench,” Hanson-Wilbur said, about being an offense-only player as a freshman. “It was fun, cause I had friends there, but I did not like not having a part in helping the team. I really wanted to be an all-around player and more of a threat.”

Hanson-Wilbur admits she gets tired while staying on the court all the time. but the competitive fire in her gut keeps her going.

“In those moments, I just remember I have to do this for the team,” she said. “I know I am a stability player, and I take that to heart. I use it to get me through. I want to be a good role model for the younger players on the team.”

Three great seasons

Hanson-Wilbur’s impact in volleyball has also been huge, based on the record alone.

In the three years that she’s been a full-rotation player, the Trojans have posted a combined 90-24-3 mark with three conference championships, two district titles (so far) and one regional championship (so far).

Hansen-Wilbur’s contributions have not been limited to the way she plays. She has also become the team’s emotional leader, particularly over the past two seasons.

“She knows she plays a big role on the team, and she is one of the most positive teammates,” Fehler said. “She smiles out there all the time, and when she’s smiling and laughing she plays her best. She knows how to lift people around her.”

Nicole Bayle, Hanson-Wilbur’s head coach for her first three seasons of varsity volleyball, said her leadership role sort of comes naturally.

“Izzy is not of one those kids who wants everyone to follow her,” Bayle said. “She has never been one to strive to be the center of attention. But because of her enigmatic personality, her teammates want to follow.”

In 2024, when Hanson-Wilbur was a sophomore, the Trojans posted a 31-11 record, won the O-K Silver conference championship, beat Whitehall and Montague to win a Division 2 district championship, then beat Forest Hills Eastern and St. Johns to win a regional title.

That took them to the final 8, where they lost to Essexville-Garber in the state quarterfinals.

Last year they posted a 28-13-1 record, won another conference title, beat Montague and Spring Lake to win another district championship, then beat Ionia in the first round of regionals.

That led to a showdown with Fremont in front of a packed crowd in the regional finals, with another berth in the state quarterfinals on the line.

The Trojans lost the first set 15-25, won the second 25-16, lost the third 20-25, then fought like crazy in the fourth set and stayed alive with a marathon 28-26 win.

That set up a dramatic fifth-set tiebreaker, which Fruitport lost 10-15, ending its season one step short of a return to the state quarterfinals.

This year started out little odd for the Trojans. Their hopes were very high, with lots of key players back from last year’s great team, but they had a brand new head coach, after Bayle retired following an extremely successful 19-year career.

But everything has worked out great for the Trojans under Fehler, a former Muskegon Community College head coach who played for Bayle at Fruitport in her high school days.

“I was a little worried at first, with Coach Bayle leaving, but coach Sam was the best option, the perfect person to be put in that position,” Hanson-Wilbur said. “I knew she was going to help us. She has helped me in a lot of ways.”

The Trojans finished the regular season last week with 31-8-2 record and its third straight O-K Silver conference title.

Now its on to the state tournament again.

The Trojans will open on Wednesday against Kenowa Hills in the district semifinals at 5 p.m. at Grand Rapids Covenant Christian High School. The winner will advance to Thursday’s championship match at Covenant Christian.

Kenowa Hills advanced to the semifinals by upsetting Spring Lake, the Trojans’ archrival, in a five-set quarterfinal match on Monday night.

For Hanson-Wilbur, and fellow seniors Emma Fecher, Josalynn Nowicki, Addison Bordeaux and Alexa Sweet, this is the last chance to complete their long odyssey and reach the highest levels of the state tournament, where they felt they have belonged for several years now.

They are super-motivated by their painful loss to Fremont in regionals last year, as well as the fact that they are not ranked among the top teams in the state, despite their great record and success in recent seasons.

“Everyone is extremely motivated – you can just tell at our practices,” Hanson-Wilbur said. “It’s obvious that we just really want to be number one, especially after last year. That Fremont match was heartbreaking. Everyone still talks about it. It’s the fuel we run on. We couldn’t believe we lost. We want to make it back to that level, and go even further.

“Hopefully we can make it to the state finals. That’s the end goal, really.”

Future remains a mystery

Ironically, volleyball was the last of the three sports that Hanson-Wilbur dove in to.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was three or four,” she said. “That was the start. I have loved soccer my whole life. I started playing basketball in the third grade, when my dad coached me. With volleyball, I just started randomly playing in the seventh grade.

“I did not think I would be at this point when I started playing volleyball. It was just for fun in middle school.”

Hanson-Wilbur quickly became great in all three sports. She made the varsity right away as a freshmen in all of them, and has piled up a ton of individual honors along the way.

In volleyball, she was honorable mention All-Conference as a freshman, and first-team All-Conference as a sophomore and junior. She was also named All-Region as a junior.

In basketball she was honorable mention All-Conference as a freshman, and first-team All-Conference in each of the past two years.

In soccer she was All-District as a freshman, All-Conference, All-District, All-Region and honorable mention All-State as a sophomore, and All-Conference and All-District last year.

So which sport does she think she has the biggest impact in?

“That’s a toughie,” Hanson-Wilbur said. “I guess I would have to look at the stats. In all three sports I play different positions – in soccer I’m a defender, in basketball I’m a guard – I guess I would have to leave that to the viewers.”

Which sport does she love the most?

“That’s a hard one, too,” she said. “I have always loved soccer. Recently I guess it’s been going back and forth between soccer and volleyball.”

Obviously being a three-sport athlete has kept Hansen-Wilbur very busy throughout her teen years, and it’s not just because she plays a new sport every season.

All high school sports have become year-round endeavors, so when Hanson-Wilbur is playing one sport in a particular season, she is also working out with teammates from another sport at the same time.

“In the summer I have a job and I work nights,” she said. “We mainly do volleyball conditioning every morning, there is some soccer on the weekends, and then basketball open gyms. It’s like a mix of all three.

“In the fall I have volleyball practice and games, of course, and I play on a club soccer team all the way through volleyball season, and there are basketball open gyms.

“In the winter it’s mostly basketball, but in soccer there are open gyms and workouts, as well as conditioning. In the spring, I just mostly focus on soccer.”

That sounds absolutely exhausting, much more than the average mortal would be able to handle. Has Hanson-Wilbur ever considered dropping one of her sports, just to give herself time to breathe?

“I could never do that,” she said. “I have to play all three. I’ve been playing all three for four years. There’s no way I could have a season without a sport. I wouldn’t know how to do it.”

In a lot of ways Hanson-Wilbur is a throwback. In an age when more student-athletes are specializing in one sport – usually in pursuit of college scholarships – she has continued to play everything.

She definitely believes playing all three sports has helped her improve in all three sports, because the skills required for each translate into the others.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Hanson-Wilbur said. “Playing soccer helped me learn to be physical enough to play basketball, using my hands in basketball helped me in volleyball, and volleyball helps me with conditioning in every sport.”

After being so busy with all three sports for more than three years, Hanson-Wilbur knows she is headed for a big lifestyle change, with graduation looming next spring. Her high school volleyball career is almost over, and she has one go-round left in basketball and soccer.

“That has been really hitting me hard,” she said. “It’s crazy to think we are going into volleyball districts, and one loss and the season is done. I can’t imagine not playing volleyball anymore, or any of my sports anymore. That idea has been really hard on me.

“I have just been trying to enjoy every moment, making a lot of memories and taking a lot of pictures.”

Of course everyone is wondering which sport Hanson-Wilbur will choose to play in college.

The answer, at this point, is that she has no idea.

Shockingly, the girl who can’t go one single season without playing on some team is not even sure she will play any college sport at all.

“It’s a mystery to me right now, to be honest,” Hanson-Wilbur said. “I haven’t decided yet. It’s super hard for me to make this decision. The hardest thing is picking the one that I want to pursue.

“I have been getting asked about this by everyone, even by my parents, because they have no idea. I am a bit scared to play a sport in college, honestly, even though I have been playing my whole life.

“I never said I didn’t want to. I just don’t know yet.”