File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School’s Maddie Backer puts up a shot in the paint during a Jan. 19, 2023 home game against St. Peter.

NEW ULM — New Ulm High School senior Maddie Backer will be graduating and moving south of New Ulm next year.

She’ll soon find herself in another small city that reminds her of home, however, as she will head to Pella, Iowa, to attend Central College to play basketball and further her education.

Backer, a 5-foot-6 starting guard for the New Ulm Eagles girls basketball team and softball team, made it official on Wednesday as she signed her Letter of Intent.

Backer is entering her final year of high school basketball, coming off of a 2023-24 season that saw her average 10.8 points, 4.1 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game.

Central College hooked Backer quickly during the summer after she attended a 2024 elite camp at the college.

“I went down for a visit to Central in the summer and I loved their coaching staff,” Backer said. “As soon as I went to the camp, I saw how the coaching staff acted, how they treated their athletes, I just knew that’s where I wanted to be. It didn’t really come down to multiple schools, it just came down to — it was Central or nothing and it was just kind of, ‘Will Central have everything I need?’ And I decided it did.”

With a population of around 10,500, Pella was founded by a Dutch immigrant, Dominie Henry Peter Scholte, in the mid 1800s. It is located in Marion County, Iowa, 278 miles southeast of New Ulm and is also a city former NBA All-Star and prolific 3-point shooter Kyle Korver graduated high school (Pella High School) from in 1999.

“Pella, Iowa, is about 4 hours and 15 minutes away from New Ulm,” Backer said. “It reminds me a lot of New Ulm, it’s kind of a smaller town, but it’s not teeny-tiny like a Nicollet or anything.”

Central College, founded in 1853, has a student body of around 1,700 and is home to the Division III Central College Dutch.

Backer said that the Dutch women’s basketball head coach Justin Weiland told her he’d likely play her at point guard, shooting guard or potentially small forward.

“Talking to Justin, their head coach, he said he’d primarily see me at either a 1, 2 or 3,” Backer said. “So when I will be a freshman … this year they graduate four senior guards, so they’ll need some guard work, so he said I’ll either mostly be the 1 or 2, so I’ll either be the guard or the wing.”

In addition to the city of Pella reminding her of New Ulm, Backer also sees similarities between her current New Ulm Eagles team and the Central College Dutch team.

“I think they have a very similar offense to my school ball team,” Backer said. “They want to get fast breaks, they want to push the ball up the court really fast, they want to score within minimal passes. But, obviously, when they have to set up their offense, they normally have one post high and four guards on the outside of the arc … and they have set plays, but it’s kind of just a motion offense.

“When you’re in college, everyone’s smart enough to read the defense and read their teammates and know what to do and it’s kind of just a drive-and-kick kind of offense with working through the post.”

Backer has met her soon-to-be Central teammates a few times already and knows the team has talent in the post that she’s excited to work with, such as 6-foot-1 sophomore forward CeCe Moore (12 ppg, 9 rpg).

“I’ve actually met with the girls like three times now,” Backer said. “They’re really strong in the post position actually. They have a very talented post there this year and she’s only a sophomore. I know someone in my class that committed from Minnesota [Katelyn Peterson, Centennial H.S.], she’s really tall [6-foot-1].”

Backer had offers from other schools to play basketball, but she also listened to coaches interested in recruiting her to play softball, and for good reason.

In the spring of 2024, Backer hit .382 and led the Eagles in hits (29), runs scored (30), stolen bases (29) and triples (5).

“I actually had a few other offers for basketball and then last year I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to play college softball as well or not,” Backer said. “I had some interest from — I’d actually say more softball coaches than I did basketball coaches — but, yes, I’ve had interest for both sports. And then this year I decided I just wanted to do one sport in college and then I decided I wanted that one sport to be basketball.”

One other school that got a little more attention from Backer was Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato. However, Backer said it was a little too close to home and smaller than she’d like, so Central remained at the top of her list.

“Pretty much after I got the offer from Central, any other school that reached out to me, I kind of told them that I wasn’t interested and I knew that it would be Central or nothing,” Backer said. “I just had to decide between Central and like a big state school, so it just came down to basketball or the U of M [University of Minnesota] or Iowa State or Wisconsin, and when I decided basketball, I knew right away it would be Central.”

No matter how many sports an athlete plays in high school, not getting the chance to play any in college would have been hard for Backer to handle.

“I am really looking forward to continuing my basketball career,” Backer said. “Ultimately, I know not many athletes get the chance to extend their athletic career after [high school], so just having the opportunity to play four more years is major blessing and I’m super excited to continue my career.

“I’m a very competitive person, so just going from competing in two sports to competing in nothing would be a big-time jump for me, so I just am looking forward to continuing competing.”

Backer said she’s not 100% decided yet but is currently thinking about studying business analytics.

The winter of 2025 is far away yet, however, and Backer will be looking to make her senior year of basketball and softball her best one yet.