“Coming out of high school, I didn’t want to go there (Alma) because I was Fralick’s little sister,” Luckhardt said. “I loved my brother, but I didn’t want to be the person who just followed in his footsteps. I felt like at Alma, he really defined himself in football, but ultimately I had a lot of friends and connections at Alma.
“I felt I was able to create my own identity.”
Did she ever.
Joining the team as a sophomore, she entered the starting lineup of the defending MIAA co-champion and first-year coach Steve Humm and joined a group of juniors that would take Alma to unbelievable heights.
“I would’ve loved to be in coach Humm’s office when she came over,” Luckhardt’s father Mark Fralick said. “They were a great team and they were just missing someone in the middle. Erin was the lone sophomore on the team, nobody else was recruited. Everything was pretty much complete.”
Luckhardt helped the Scots win three straight conference titles, make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years and earned the program’s first-ever national ranking. Their 33-match win streak to start the 2004 season was one of the longest in Division III history.
As a lone senior, Luckhardt earned first-team All-American honors for the first time in any sport at Alma since 1991, racked up the second-most blocks, 391, in school history in just three seasons and her 459 kills her senior year were the second-best total ever, while she broke her own record for hitting percentage, .421, despite almost constant double-teaming by opponents.
“She was the missing piece of the puzzle, that missing presence in the middle,” Humm told the Morning Sun newspaper. “You just get lucky sometimes. It took me one practice to see that she’d be something special, but to envision first-time All-American, I don’t know.”
But Luckhardt knew, even if she had to convince her coach, her parents, family, friends an opponents otherwise.
“She’s just a natural leader,” Humm said. “It was so huge to have a kid like on this team, a leader-type kid, especially because the other returning starter was pretty quiet.”
When all was said and done at Alma, Luckhardt left as one of the Scots’ all-time best. She ranked 10th nationally in hitting percentage with a .422 overall mark her senior year, averaged 4.17 kills per game to go along with a total of 110 blocks and capped her career by ranking in the top 10 in nearly every statistical category in Alma history.
“A lot that wasn’t possible without the help of my teammates and the coaches that I had,” Luckhardt said. “Some of my teammates from Alma will be up for the ceremony and I just think that’s a huge piece. I’m still in touch with a lot of girls I played in high school and in college with and that’s just a valuable part of athletics, having lifelong friendships.
“Nothing is possible without them.”
Mark Fralick added it was really Gavin’s success that drove his daughter while playing for the Maroon and Cream.
“She’s her own individual, but she saw what he had done there and that was something she wanted to do for herself,” Mark Fralick added. “I’m proud of both of my kids and I’m pleased that other people recognized that too.”
Still in the game
Now an eighth-grade U.S. history teacher in Boyne City, much like her father and brother (“It gives us something to talk about at Thanksgiving,” Mark Fralick quipped), Luckhardt married her husband, Jon, in 2010 and moved back to Petoskey that same year.
Prior to moving back to the area, Luckhardt coached volleyball in Williamston where her team won a district title her second year.
“I was really lucky, we had a great gym, great booster program and it was our first district there in probably 20 years,” Luckhardt said. “We lost in the regional finals to DeWitt, but it was an awesome experience and I still stay in touch with most those girls.”
Now, Luckhardt coaches AAU volleyball for a seventh-and-eighth grade team out of Boyne City.
“I felt I was able to create my own identity.”
Did she ever.
Joining the team as a sophomore, she entered the starting lineup of the defending MIAA co-champion and first-year coach Steve Humm and joined a group of juniors that would take Alma to unbelievable heights.
“I would’ve loved to be in coach Humm’s office when she came over,” Luckhardt’s father Mark Fralick said. “They were a great team and they were just missing someone in the middle. Erin was the lone sophomore on the team, nobody else was recruited. Everything was pretty much complete.”
Luckhardt helped the Scots win three straight conference titles, make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years and earned the program’s first-ever national ranking. Their 33-match win streak to start the 2004 season was one of the longest in Division III history.
As a lone senior, Luckhardt earned first-team All-American honors for the first time in any sport at Alma since 1991, racked up the second-most blocks, 391, in school history in just three seasons and her 459 kills her senior year were the second-best total ever, while she broke her own record for hitting percentage, .421, despite almost constant double-teaming by opponents.
“She was the missing piece of the puzzle, that missing presence in the middle,” Humm told the Morning Sun newspaper. “You just get lucky sometimes. It took me one practice to see that she’d be something special, but to envision first-time All-American, I don’t know.”
But Luckhardt knew, even if she had to convince her coach, her parents, family, friends an opponents otherwise.
“She’s just a natural leader,” Humm said. “It was so huge to have a kid like on this team, a leader-type kid, especially because the other returning starter was pretty quiet.”
When all was said and done at Alma, Luckhardt left as one of the Scots’ all-time best. She ranked 10th nationally in hitting percentage with a .422 overall mark her senior year, averaged 4.17 kills per game to go along with a total of 110 blocks and capped her career by ranking in the top 10 in nearly every statistical category in Alma history.
“A lot that wasn’t possible without the help of my teammates and the coaches that I had,” Luckhardt said. “Some of my teammates from Alma will be up for the ceremony and I just think that’s a huge piece. I’m still in touch with a lot of girls I played in high school and in college with and that’s just a valuable part of athletics, having lifelong friendships.
“Nothing is possible without them.”
Mark Fralick added it was really Gavin’s success that drove his daughter while playing for the Maroon and Cream.
“She’s her own individual, but she saw what he had done there and that was something she wanted to do for herself,” Mark Fralick added. “I’m proud of both of my kids and I’m pleased that other people recognized that too.”
Still in the game
Now an eighth-grade U.S. history teacher in Boyne City, much like her father and brother (“It gives us something to talk about at Thanksgiving,” Mark Fralick quipped), Luckhardt married her husband, Jon, in 2010 and moved back to Petoskey that same year.
Prior to moving back to the area, Luckhardt coached volleyball in Williamston where her team won a district title her second year.
“I was really lucky, we had a great gym, great booster program and it was our first district there in probably 20 years,” Luckhardt said. “We lost in the regional finals to DeWitt, but it was an awesome experience and I still stay in touch with most those girls.”
Now, Luckhardt coaches AAU volleyball for a seventh-and-eighth grade team out of Boyne City.
