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NEW ULM -- When Daviney Dreckman was in seventh grade at New Ulm Middle School, she attended a New Ulm Basketball Association Night at New Ulm High School to watch the Eagles girls varsity team play.
"I had gotten a poster of the New Ulm girls basketball team and I was a seventh-grader at this point. I was going up to the table to get it signed by the varsity players," she recalled. "And Joey Batt, who was a senior on the team looked up at me and said, 'Are you Daviney Dreckman?' I told her I was and she said, 'My dad is talking about you.'"
Batt's dad, Brian, was the Eagles' head girls basketball coach at the time.
Five years later, Dreckman has more than just Brian Batt talking about her.
Thursday night, Dreckman scored 22 points against Belle Paline and became just the fourth New Ulm High School girl to score 1,000 career points.
Dreckman added 14 points on Saturday in Willmar and now has 1,017 career points.
She joins Batt (2,301) Meleah Reinhart (1,842) and Kayla Altmann (1,250) as 1,000-career point scorers.
Dreckman said that her 1,000 point came on a left-handed drive and-one -- a conventional 3-point play.
She said that they stopped the game in Belle Plaine to recognize her achievement.
"They stopped the game and Belle Plaine was very nice," she said. "They congratulated me -- and they had a little speech on where I am going to college next year, how I missed half of my sophomore year due to an ACL injury. They were super sweet."
Dreckman said that she did not know that she was only the fourth girl to score 1,000 career points at NUHS.
"I feel that this really helps build women's basketball -- for a while New Ulm girls basketball was not too much -- my freshman year we only won three games. Seeing that and where we are now (30 wins in the last two seasons), it makes me feel that I am helping put this team on the map.
"We want to make it to the state tournament this year. Our biggest competitor is St. Peter -- we play them there next Friday -- so we want the opportunity to beat them."
After high school, Dreckman will attend the University of Jamestown (North Dakota).
For Dreckman, attending the University of Jamestown -- to use a basketball cliche -- was a "slam dunk" for her.
"I went up there last April and I met coach Thad [Sankey] and the assistant coaches, I said yes," Dreckman said. "They have such a family feel. I know that it is far away, but they make you feel like it is not at all. And they made the best offer."
Plus Dreckman said that Jamestown had what she wanted in an education.
"I am going to school for nursing and they have one of the top nursing programs in the country."
Dreckman sad that she had heard from Gustavus Adolphus, Bethany Lutheran College, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Concordia, Simpson College along with other DIII schools in Minnesota.
Dreckman said that she often reflects back to when she was a seventh-grader and met Batt.
"She had that drive and determination. It was something that I wanted to have to."
And now Dreckman is role model for younger players like Batt was for her.
"I do have some [younger] girls who come up to me, and I tell them the biggest thing is you stay close to the girls you are playing with," Dreckman said. "We had a team in middle school and now I am only playing with three of those girls. So you work at it -- it does not come overnight -- it is a process and you have fun with it. Don't compare yourself to other girls. You have your own pathway."
Dreckman will be recognized for her achievement prior to the Eagles next home game on Tuesday, Dec. 12, when the Eagles host Fairmont.