Former Ankeny volleyball star Jill Hoeck will be inducted into the NJCAA Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Nov. 19 during the 2024 NJCAA Division I national tournament in Clarksville, Tenn.
Hoeck played on Ankeny’s back-to-back state runner-up teams in 2002-03 before moving on to Indian Hills Community College, where she was a first-team all-American and twice led the Warriors to the NJCAA national tournament. She easily smashed every record for assists in the history of the program, finishing her career with 3,254 assists–a mark that she broke by 1,396 assists.
The Warriors captured a third-place finish in 2004, still the best finish in program history, and took fifth in 2005. Hoeck received the tournament’s Most Outstanding Setter award in both trips to the event.
Hoeck dished out 1,605 assists as a freshman, the fifth-best total in a single season in school history. She then had 1,649 as a sophomore, which ranks third on the school’s all-time list.
Hoeck was previously inducted into the Indian Hills Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013, becoming only the second volleyball player to be enshrined.
“Terry Carlson was the same coach at Indian Hills that started me playing volleyball at Ankeny when I was in fourth grade,” Hoeck said in 2020, when she was named to Ankeny Fanatic’s all-time Ankeny volleyball team. “I was friends with his daughter. We grew up playing volleyball together and after (Carlson) took the Indian Hills job, I always went to the school to visit.”
Hoeck went on to complete her college career at North Carolina-Wilmington. She started every match in her two seasons and compiled 2,073 assists, which puts her in the top 10 on the school’s all-time list.
At Ankeny, Hoeck had just 218 assists as a junior, when she served as a backup to future Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union Volleyball Hall of Famer Kristin Belzung. But her coach, Dave Whims, knew that she was a potential star.
“Jill was a great setter, but she had to wait her turn because of the many great players we had,” Whims said. “I knew she would be an all-stater her senior year, and she proved me right. We went to a 5-1 offense, and Jill ran the show. She was a hard worker, smart and had a high skill level for setting and ran a great offense.”
Hoeck racked up 777 assists and set a school record with 478 serve attempts in 2003, helping the Hawkettes to a 33-match winning streak to open the season and eventually another runner-up finish in Class 4A. She was named to the all-tournament team and was selected to the all-state first team.