DOVE CREEK – The banners that ring the perimeter of The Dawg House at Dove Creek High School that commemorate the school’s athletic success are a salient reminder of the adage “Iron sharpens iron.”
Senior Ralynn Hickman’s banner joins the rest of her Class of 2025 fellow athletes who played a large part in the most recent additions to the accolades – state tournament appearances and league titles joining the list on a yearly basis.
The volleyball, basketball and track star stepped into a role as an immediate varsity contributor, sharpening her skills behind the guidance of several outstanding classes of upperclassmen in front of her. In her final years as a Bulldog, Hickman in turn became the whetstone for the rest of her teammates, honing the skills the next wave of Dove Creek athletes.
Her athletic career won’t end when she walks across the graduation stage in May, however, as she recently committed to continue her volleyball career at Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota.
“There’s a lot of community support – they treat everyone like family,” Hickman said about Mount Marty, “and the volleyball program is doing well, so I feel like I can have a lot of success there.”
Hickman capped off her Dove Creek athletic career among the tops in program history in numerous statistical categories, most notably surpassing 1,000 kills during her career as a dominant hitter for the Bulldogs. The individual accolades came as part of four state tournament appearances in volleyball, along with three in basketball. Hickman earned all-state designations twice in volleyball, once for hoops, and numerous all-state medals in track – where she hopes to add more to her total this spring.
Seeing previous teammates like Class of 2024 Bulldogs Kalie and Kylie Gatlin continuing their volleyball careers after high school planted the seed for Hickman that it was something that she could chase, too.
“They reached out and said, ‘You can do this,’ and that really helped me,” said Hickman. “I knew that I wanted to play, I just wasn’t sure where I was going to go.”
Now, she’ll head to the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the NAIA, where the MMU Lancers hope to continue building a program that finished 12-15 last fall.
With the school situated on the bluffs above the Missouri River on the southern border of the Mount Rushmore State, Hickman looks forward to continuing her education in nursing.
“I had a lot of schools reach out to me, but Mount Marty provided me with one of the best opportunities to go into nursing,” added Hickman, “and I’ve been wanting to explore outside of Colorado, so that’ll be great, too.”
She’ll take a barrel full of varsity letters and memories from her time at Dove Creek, while also remembering the coaches and mentors who led her down her path. “They always took the time to let me know how proud they were,” said Hickman. “I always felt like I had their support.”
With the recent dominance that the Bulldogs have enjoyed in San Juan Basin League action in both volleyball and basketball, Hickman grew up around a strong, motivated group of athletes – something that pushed her to excel just by keeping up with her older friends.
“Playing with them – our practices were always intense, sometimes more intense than the games,” said Hickman with a smile. “Our coaches always told us that we were fun to watch because of the energy we brought to the court.”
“At the same time, we always made it fun,” added Hickman, “and that’s something I’ll always hold on to from my time at Dove Creek.”
