File photo by Travis Rosenau Nicollet’s Leah Bode watches a base hit of hers during a Section 2A playoff game at Caswell Park in North Mankato on May 24, 2025.

NICOLLET — Leah Bode, formerly a standout three-sport athlete for the Nicollet Raiders, has known for a while what she’s wanted to do with the next chapter of her life after graduating Nicollet High School in 2025.

While she could have pursued a collegiate athletic career in any of the three sports she played — volleyball, basketball or softball — softball was where Bode arguably shined the brightest and her love of being on the diamond or in the outfield was too hard to let go of in college.

Bode will continue her softball career playing for coach Katie King and the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Iowa Lakes Lakers in Estherville, Iowa.

Bode’s decision to go to Iowa Lakes was made easier thanks to her big sister, Brooklyn, a 2023 Nicollet High School grad who recently graduated Iowa Lakes last spring with a .294 career batting average and 36 RBIs during her two-year run with the Lakers.

Bode said that before her big sister committed to Iowa Lakes, she didn’t know of the school and that seeing her play for Iowa Lakes made the decision to commit easier. Bode’s uncle and Nicollet head softball coach, Marc, was also helpful in getting her college hunt started.

“I knew I wanted to play softball, that was kind of something that obviously was important to me,” Bode said. “Marc helped me, he got me on this app that college coaches could reach out and stuff. So some coaches started reaching out, but I didn’t tour many schools.

“And then Brooklyn kept telling me just to fill out, all schools have an online recruiting form you can fill out, so she encouraged me to just fill it out for Iowa Lakes. I ended up filling it out, went down for a visit and that was kind of just that.”

Bode, a four-time All-Conference, four-time All-Journal and two-time All-State softball player, finished her career at Nicollet with a .441 career batting average, 144 hits, 126 RBIs and 10 homers. Last season, she hit .359 with a team-high 30 RBIs.

Most impressively to her resume, however, is being a part of the first-ever state championship won by a Nicollet High School team when the Raiders won the Class A State Softball Tournament in 2022.

That season, the Raiders’ pitching staff was led by a pair of senior aces in Marah Hulke and Hayley Selby. The 2023 season, however, brought a need for new pitchers to step in and try to keep the Raiders competitive.

Bode was then asked to leave her spot in the outfield to pitch and was willing to do so. That forced Bode to quickly get up to speed in the circle, which wasn’t a quick and easy process.

“Kind of thrown into the whole pitching thing, but that was my choice I made, like, ‘Yep, we don’t really have anyone, I’m gonna try and do this,'” Bode said. “So I’ve only been pitching since my sophomore year, whereas I know when you think high school pitchers, people start pitching when they’re so young, and me, I’ve only pitched three years of my life.”

While she didn’t have the pitching success she’d have liked her first year in the circle, Bode’s improvements and comfortability were much more noticeable during her senior year as she finished the 2025 season 13-8 with 4.23 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 134 innings.

“Sophomore year, I kind of split time in the circle, then junior and senior year, for the most part, it was all me,” Bode said. “Over those years, even though I was constantly pitching, I was constantly changing stuff, like, ‘How am I gonna make this better?’ Just still trying to learn the whole aspect of it, and I am happy with how it turned out. … It was helpful to our team and what our team needed, especially this past year. I feel junior to senior year, the whole aspect of it, we definitely had some growth there in all parts of the game.”

The Raiders went 8-13 in 2024 and turned that record around in 2025 as they finished 14-8.

Bode said in addition to what she heard from her sister, she liked that Iowa Lakes is a smaller school and Estherville, a population of around 6,000, isn’t too large either.

“Growing up in and around Nicollet, small school, small community, Estherville is not a huge town, the school’s not huge, so it’s not going to be like this extreme culture shock,” she said. “From Brooklyn’s experience, it’s a nice community, the softball program and coach Katie King, she always has them helping out in various things in the community, and that’s pretty important to me, too.”

While she has pitching skills under her belt now, Bode expects to get back to her roots in the outfield, something she said made her feel more free, at Iowa Lakes. However, she’s happy to play wherever she’s needed.

“Wherever I fit in,” she said. “Obviously nothing has started yet, but I’m feeling like I’m probably gonna kind of go back more to the outfield and that fielding aspect. This year there’s been a lot of pitchers signed to the team and I’m totally fine with that. But my mindset is wherever I’m needed, that’s where I’m gonna try and help out.”

In addition to knowing 2025 New Ulm High School grad Kenzie Enter, who will play softball at Iowa Lakes also, Bode said she knows of some of the sophomores that played with her sister last season. While she doesn’t know many of her new teammates on a personal level yet, Bode will quickly get to meet them and chat in person more when she begins her first year of college in less than a week.

The Lakers’ official season begins next spring, but they will have a fall preseason slate of games starting in September.

Bode plans to get an Associate in Science degree and eventually has plans to get into nursing.