From starting as a freshman, to playing in Brazil, to helping her team triple its season win total, Reilly Geistfeld has had quite a career.

Geistfeld finished her senior basketball season at Hamline University just in time to beat the COVID-19 shutdowns of major sports.

The 5-10 forward and former Martin County West standout, joined the Pipers after three years of the team winning five games or fewer. In her first two years, the trend continued, but as the four-year starter and her class of teammates advanced, so did the team.

Geistfeld helped lead the team to a 13-12 record in the 2018-19 season, the Pipers’ first over-.500 record since the 2012-13 season.

In her senior year, the Pipers improved again, ending the season with a 15-11 record. Geistfeld said there were a couple of big reasons for the marked improvement.

“First, we got a new coach (Alex Focke) and he is awesome,” Geistfeld said. “And then second of all, my senior class, people who stuck around were a really solid base. We all worked really hard in the offseason to get better and we all were very committed to the team and making ourselves better. And then each year we added on people who are the same as us, and had the same mindset.”

The success didn’t only come for the team, but for Geistfeld, too. Geistfeld joined the Pipers and immediately had a role in the starting lineup, averaging 9.3 points per game in 25 games played, while adding a team-high 167 rebounds. Geistfeld also totaled 23 assists and 40 steals.

She advanced her scoring ability in her sophomore year, averaging 10.6 points per game, playing in all 25 games, while leading the team in rebounds again with 155. Geistfeld became a key player, finishing top-two on the team in all five statistical catagories, ending second on the team with 43 assists, 46 steals and 11 blocks.

But through each of her first two years, the team still won five and four games, respectively.

In a 13-12 season as a junior, Geistfeld upped her game once again, averaging a team-high 16.5 points per game, once again playing in all 25 games, while leading the team with 212 rebounds, averaging nearly a double-double with 8.5 per game, as well as a team-high 21 blocks.

Geistfeld said strength was a major factor in her improvement.

“Starting off I was, I honestly got my butt kicked freshman year but I got in the weight room and I got a lot stronger,” Geistfeld said. “Especially when I was at the four position I was stronger than the people trying to guard me, that made me a lot more successful and helped me get more rebounds on the other end, too.”

Before her senior season, Geistfeld got the opportunity of a lifetime, joining the D-3 Team USA women’s basketball squad for four games against international squads in Brazil.

Geistfeld said the experience was unlike anything she had seen on the hardwood before.

“It was amazing,” Geistfeld said. “It was very interesting because when we got over there, the women were all different ages. So I was playing like, on one team, there’s like 40 year old women. It was interesting to see how basketball is played over somewhere else in a different culture. And it’s also really fun to meet new people from all over the country, too. And I so like, connected with them. And like, when we were still playing, it was fun to see how they were doing with their achievements and stuff, too.”

One of Geistfeld’s Team USA teammates was MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) opponent Taite Anderson from Bethel. Geistfeld said her competitiveness had driven her to never much like her opponents on the court, but having an opponent turn to a teammate for the experience changed her outlook.

She said playing with Team USA the summer before her senior year helped her improve again for her final campaign with the Pipers.

The extra work shown through in Geistfeld’s senior stats. She averaged a team-high 15.6 points per game and neared a double-double average with 9.2 rebounds per game, for 239 total. Geistfeld added a team-high 24 blocks, the third-highest team total of 31 assists and runner-up team total of 47 steals. All that added up to Geistfeld being selected to the All-MIAC team, along with teammate Lydia Lecher.

Geistfeld said her love of basketball comes from spending most of her youth in a gym.

“I was pretty much born in the gym,” Geistfeld said with a laugh. “My mom has always been a coach. So she was a varsity coach when I was born and I just always remember being in the gym I don’t remember a certain time I started playing.”

Although her basketball career has come to a close, Geistfeld’s schooling has not.

She is finishing up a double major at Hamline, earning degrees in psychology and public health. She said she wants to go into occupational therapy and therefor will need a graduate degree. She said she has already been accepted into the necesary program at the University of South Dakota and she will begin this summer.

After years spent on the hardwood and in the classroom, Geistfeld said there were many life lessons to be learned, but one stood out above the rest.

“Something very valuable is being able to balance multiple things like having that athlete schedule is crazy,” Geistfeld said. “You get up at 6 a.m. to do workouts and then you go to your 8 a.m. class right after. So balancing class and basketball, and I was working two, so, three huge things. I think when I get to the job force and having a family and all that I’ll be able to handle it more, I guess balance it.”