D-I pioneer: Heaven Hamling puts Bison women back on map

Once, when coming back from a Bison team offseason paintball activity near Mayville, North Dakota, last July with three true freshmen in her pickup, Hamling saw a dead buck with big antlers lying in a ditch. She went to the nearest store, bought a saw, cut the big rack and took it back to Fargo.

Her father, Robert Hamling, used to be a fishing guide for a family that is from the northern outdoors mecca of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Heaven grew up in that environment.

She also grew up with basketball. It took the Bison in the NCAA Division I era almost two decades, but they finally found a combination of a head coach in Jory Collins and a player like Hamling to right the canoe.

Who better to be a second generation pioneer from a once dominant program than a player who could dang near live off the land? There’s a sense of being a part of Division I history for Hamling. She was aware of all the Division II success. She was aware of the lack of it in Division I.

“I was always of the mindset of wanting NDSU to be back on the map,” Hamling said. “They used to be national champions and now it’s kind of forgotten about so I want to be one of the first ones to come in and give it a spark again.”

The fire has been lit. NDSU will take a 19-10 record and a No. 2 seed into the Summit League women's tournament on Saturday, facing the University of Denver in the first round. Since joining the Summit in 2007-08, it’s the best Bison team of the Division I era.

The resurrection started with Collins. One of his first calls was to Hamling, a freshman guard at Stephen F. Austin University (Texas) who was looking to transfer.

“I think it’s a partnership that she’s kind of created with Jory,” said Bison senior guard Abby Schulte. “You can just look at her and see at all the things she’s been through, all the things she’s trying to do and how much work she’s put in. That definitely raises the level of respect that we all have.”

It’s been a journey.

With a spirit to see more of the country, fueled by playing AAU basketball for the Minnesota Stars that went to a lot of places, Hamling enrolled at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas. One AAU stop was in Frisco, Texas, which got her thinking about playing in that area.

It seemed cool to her. Getting away from home seemed like a great idea. But when she got there, reality hit.

She’s a Midwest girl, after all. Even the thought of getting home required a flight to Minneapolis and a 3 1/2-hour drive to Grand Rapids. It was the first time she wasn’t around her mother Kristine Hamling, who was such a big part of her basketball life being the head girls coach at Grand Rapids High School.

Around Christmas, she came to a decision. She also saw that NDSU was struggling. Maren Walseth was in her fifth year as the Bison head coach, but things weren’t looking promising for her to return the following year.

“I do not know who the coach may or may not be next year, but God was just kind of telling me NDSU should be for me,” Hamling said.

Walseth and the NDSU administration parted ways after the season. Collins was hired in the spring of 2019. All through that process, Hamling’s AAU coaches kept her in the loop as to what was going on.

It was different in a sense that she pointed her own way to NDSU in that the Bison never contacted her in high school. There were no recruiting ties from previous visits of any sort. She saw that NDSU lost its 2018-19 season opener to Minnesota Duluth and that “shocked” Hamling.

“So I thought, maybe they need a change, maybe something will happen,” Hamling said. “But I still really felt that NDSU would be the place and that everything would line up and I would be able to come here.”

Ironically, when most players look to transfer, they look at winning programs. Not in Hamling’s case.

“It’s always been my mentality,” she said. “I’ve always been not the tallest, not the fastest. Playing in a program in Minneapolis, you’re not the first pick, you’re not always going to be the one where they say, oh, I want her on my team.”

One of Collins’ first calls was to Hamling, one day before his introductory press conference. He was staying at the Fargo Holiday and Inn and she was in her dorm room at Stephen F. Austin. The two clicked from the first conversation.

The downside to transferring was Hamling would have to sit out the 2019-20 season the last time a player had to do that before the new rules of the transfer portal. On the plus side, it was a year of personal growth and development. In retrospect, she’s thankful for that.

On the plus, plus side, not having the portal meant she could use her pandemic year of eligibility and play this season with her sister, Bison true freshman guard Taryn Hamling.

“When you’re a freshman, you don’t know, you come in and you’re deer in the headlights,” Heaven said. “You’re trying to fit in as best as you can. And now being able to see her get on the court and play a role for us is awesome. And experiencing this with her is so special.”