From jerseys to leotards to tank tops, Longtin has kept her schedule full.

Competing in three sports during her time at New Ulm High School, volleyball, gymnastics and track and field, Longtin’s competitive drive and interest staying active at the college level has led her to signing a letter of intent to play volleyball next fall for the NJCAA Division III Ridgewater Warriors in Willmar, Minnesota.

“[Volleyball] always been my go-to sport since it is year round with winter season and summer season and obviously school season,” Longtin said. “Always being in the gym has only made my love for the sport grow. At the end of this [past] summer volleyball season, I really came to terms that I was leaving the sport and throughout the fall season, I figured I just wasn’t quite ready to be done yet.”

With that in mind, Longtin began looking into colleges and found the perfect fit for her where she could get her nursing degree and play volleyball while doing it in Willmar.

File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Isabelle Longtin, back, celebrates a point during a volleyball match against Blue Earth Area on Aug. 29, 2025, at New Ulm High School.

Longtin said she wanted a school that was a little bit from home but still close enough to visit family and friends whenever she wanted to.

“My dad had went there for school, so I said I might as well just go and visit the campus and I fell in the love with it,” Longtin said. “On my visit, they were talking about volleyball being a very big sport there and after the second visit, I knew I was going there. So I reached out to the coach and I went to a volleyball game and afterwards met with the coach, got to know her a little bit and then we had some Zoom meetings and I really got to know her.

“She’s super nice and I really admired her coaching style during the game that I went to and it just further solidified my decision to commit. I ended up committing at the beginning of January this year. Started to get to know the girls on the team and they’re very welcoming. I’m very excited.”

Longtin will play for Ridgewater head coach Baylie Kubesh, former athlete and head volleyball coach at BOLD High School in Bird Island. Kubesh was 71-19 at BOLD from 2020-2023 before coming to Ridgewater, which went 12-12 last season.

Longtin said Eagles head coach Christine Skoglund asked her and the team’s other four seniors to lead and help teach the younger players this past fall.

“It was very emphasized by coach Skoglund that all of us seniors needed to be leaders on this team and leaving this team with the proper leadership qualities that these juniors are going to be needing to fill our shoes with,” Longtin said. “I’ve always been kind of a leader on the court in past seasons as most setters tend to be, but this season I made it a priority to continue this leadership attitude off the court as well.”

Longtin finished her senior year of volleyball with 181 set assists, 133 digs and 52 kills as one of two starting setters.

Going to a two-year program, Longtin will be taking on a junior role of sorts as she settles in. Kubesh said she’s willing to use new recruits anywhere on the floor as needed, but Longtin’s speciality position is at setter, something Kubesh is excited to add to the team.

“[Coach Kubesh] expressed that she’s excited to have another setter so she can take each of us out and talk about what the team needs, what the game is needing setting-wise and without needing to call a timeout,” Longtin said. “So she’s really looking forward to having me and my positive energy added to the team and I’m excited to learn from the second-year players about becoming a better leader on the court.”

Throughout her career, Longtin started what was three-sport rotation for her in the fall with volleyball before vaulting into the winter season of gymnastics and hurdling through spring in track and field.

“I’ve been a three-sport athlete since middle school, always just wanting to stay active,” Longtin said. “Juggling those three sports is definitely difficult at times, but I always had the idea of keeping in shape and staying prepared for the next season.”

Longtin’s older sister, Sarah, was a 2018 New Ulm grad, a state-goer in gymnastics and currently judges in gymnastics also. While Longtin has always considered volleyball her favorite of three sports, her decision to exit the gymnastics program her senior year was a tough one to make after suffering an injury near the end of volleyball season.

“This fall during volleyball, I actually had a back injury near the tail end of the season and finishing that season as very hard, so I knew that continuing to do gymnastics would not make the injury better and focusing on volleyball in college, I knew that it wouldn’t be very smart to continue doing gymnastics with this injury,” Longtin said. “Leaving the team was especially hard knowing that it was my senior season, and I knew these girls were looking up to me, but I made sure to go to a home meet and see all those girls one more time, say hi to the coaches. But even during the offseason, I stayed in physical therapy, getting my back healed again and then continuing weight training with Amanda Wendinger at ATC.”

Longtin thanked Wendinger for helping in her recovery and called her a positive role model.

As she winds down on her senior year and looks to set some PRs on the track this spring, Longtin said she was thankful for her athletic career at New Ulm and the help and motivation she got from her coaches and teammates along the way.

“I’m glad I had that opportunity with such a great athletic experience, especially thankful for all those coaches along the way,” Longtin said. “Coach Skoglund and coach Dalluge, our head and assistant [volleyball] coaches definitely gave me, not only me but all of our [players], the confidence that we needed in ourselves. That was the confidence that I needed to pursue this next step of going to college and continuing my volleyball career. The teammates that I’ve had along the way definitely have also added to that. We’re always building each other up.”