When Austin High School grad Erin Dankert started school at the University of Minnesota-Duluth for her freshman year last Fall, she may have missed home a little and she may have felt a little overwhelmed.

But she did not feel unprepared.

Dankert graduated from AHS in 2014 and she was a three-sport athlete for the Packers. She competed in volleyball, softball and dance, where she competed in the state meet. Putting in a lot of hours for all of those teams was about more than winning and losing for Dankert, and now it’s paying off for her at she pursues her dream of becoming a pediatrician or an orthopedic surgeon with sports medicine emphasis.

She said her background in sports taught her how to keep a schedule and how to work hard.

“I have my work ethic because of sports,” Dankert said. “If I never played sports, I wouldn’t have my motivation or drive. In high school, if I didn’t get my grades, dance team and volleyball weren’t an option for me.”

At UMD, Dankert is majoring in cellular molecular biology with a health care minor in pre-med. She also works at a 2-year old early childhood program on campus, she is active in clubs and she’s looking to become an assistant coach with a dance team in Duluth.

Keeping track of a busy schedule has become second nature for Dankert. In high school, she would often have music scheduled before school, then after school she would have practice for whatever sport was in season and she would end her day with studio dance.

“In college, most people have issues with balancing their time. I’ve had zero issues with time balance because I was used to it,” Dankert said. “I’m able to focus my time in college like I was able to do in sports.”

When Dankert was in high school, sports were the silver lining after a tough day of learning at school. But she also did plenty of learning with athletics as well.

Dankert said that she learned to take criticism in a positive manner from her coaches and teammates and that has helped her in other aspects of life. She learned the importance of putting in work to get results.

“In the classroom you’re kind of forced to do it and you can just kind of just zone out if you need to and get a ‘D’ if you want to,” Dankert said. “In sports you want to work hard and they help you work hard.”

While Dankert has benefited from playing high school sports, she hasn’t been able to replace them in her life. She misses competing and she’s hoping that she can get into coaching next year to fill the void.

“It was really hard to change. I missed being on a team,” Dankert said. “The emotional support was a lot different. On the dance team I had 40 girls that I felt were like family.”