ELK MOUND — From the moment he stepped into Elk Mound High School, Victor Noller had star written all over him.
On the baseball diamond, Noller dazzled as a four-year varsity player, while on the basketball court, he aided the Mounders’ first state trip in over a decade.
For his achievements, Noller is being recognized as the Leader-Telegram Senior Male Prep Athlete of the Year.
“My overall reaction was like, ‘This is pretty cool,’” Noller said. “This is for all my years just putting in a lot of work and all the support from the family and my community has just been great to (see it) paid off.”
Noller is the second Mounder to win the award after Ellie Schiszik won the female athlete of the year last year.
“It meant a lot to me as his coach, but really it’s all on him,” Mounders baseball coach Jon Chisholm said. “It’s all the time and effort he puts into all the different things that he does and all the extra time outside of the sports he does.”
“I absolutely love Victor as a person, as an athlete; he’s one of those kids that I’m going to be lifetime in contact with,” Mounders basketball coach Dennis Arneson said. “He’s just a class act on the court, off the court, with our youth, throughout the program.”
Noller’s stellar career started and ended on the baseball diamond.
After starting out at Elk Mound T-ball at 5 years old in the footsteps of his brother Bowdrie and playing all the way through middle school, Noller made the Mounders squad as a freshman.
“I just always knew there was something special about Victor,” Chisholm said. “His baseball IQ is second to none. Every single summer he was a part of something, or a part of some travel team. That experience is something that you can’t coach.”
Others’ injuries afforded Noller opportunities to show his potential early, as he went 2-1 with a 2.69 ERA as a freshman pitcher.
“The biggest thing I learned was, if I want to be like a good varsity athlete, I need to work as hard as I possibly can,” Noller said.
Since then, Noller and Elk Mound reached incredible heights.
As a sophomore, Noller posted a 0.88 ERA, earning him a first-team All Dunn-St. Croix Conference honor and leading the Mounders to a conference title and the first of three straight regional titles.
Noller continued his rise as a junior, posting a 6-0 record, 2.16 ERA and a .421 batting average. He earned another first-team all-conference honor, an honorable mention all-state membership, a first team all-Northwest District and an academic all-district.
The Mounders fell in the sectional final, one win shy of their first state appearance since 2010.
That loss stuck with Noller, who took a necessary leadership step in his senior season.
“He’s our captain, he’s a senior, and he’s never been the most vocal guy there ever was,” Chisholm said. “When he was on the bench, it was like having another coach there. That was the coolest part to me.”
Elk Mound finished 26-3 this past year, tying for the Western Cloverbelt Conference title in its first year in the league.
Noller saved his best for last, as he ended his high school career with a seven-inning, one-hit and seven-strikeout performance in another sectional final loss.
“Even though we didn’t come out with a W, for me, I would say that’s probably the best game I’ve ever pitched in my career,” Noller said. “I felt like it was our time to go (to state). I just knew that I needed to do whatever I could, and then we would have a really good shot.”
“We were able to get his best moment, his best pitching performance of his career, his last game,” Chisholm said. “We can’t ask much more than that.”
Over the summer, Noller will play for the Eau Claire Post 53 American Legion 19U team before taking his baseball talents to Ellsworth Community College in Iowa.
“I have to thank my parents, and all my family (and) friends; they’re always so supportive, and they would always do everything they possibly could to help me achieve my dream of playing college baseball,” Noller said.
“I’ll be his biggest fan, and I’ll be keeping track of him,” Chisholm said.
With his spring and summer taken up, Noller found time to refine his basketball game in the winter.
“The summer going into seventh grade, we got a new basketball hoop,” Noller said. “I just started shooting at it like every day.”
Noller started his freshman year on the C team, coached by Arneson, and eventually worked his way into playing a small role on the varsity squad near the end of his sophomore year.
With Arneson taking over varsity heading into Noller’s junior year, expectations were high.
“We knew that we had a shot,” Noller said. “A bunch of people (were) doubting us throughout the season, but we kept winning games and proving people wrong.”
“Going into his junior year, he landed a starting spot,” Arneson said. “Being surrounded by so many great shooters, he kind of had time to think about things in the post.”
The 6-foot-6 Noller earned second team all-Dunn St. Croix conference honors, averaging 12 points a game and helped lead the Mounders to a 24-5 season.
In the postseason, Noller’s clutch free throw genes helped them claim a regional title.
“In the regional final game against Stanley Boyd, it was a tight game down the stretch,” Arneson said. “(Noller) was the guy that they were gonna foul. He was clutch, and we kept putting the ball in his hands.
“Victor kind of smirked after they fouled him, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this game’s over.’”
Noller had 22 points and 12 rebounds in the regional final.
A week later, Noller passed the clutch torch on to Kamron Diermeier for a state-clinching buzzer-beater against Amery, which clinched Elk Mound’s first sectional title since 2014.
“Winning the regional, that was super fun because that was our big goal for the season,” Noller said. “For Kam, coming back not playing his junior year, and then coming back to play senior year and then hitting a buzzer beater to go to state like that was really awesome.”
Noller, despite facing an injury at the start of his senior season, helped the Mounders to an 11-14 record.
Elk Mound finished fourth in the Cloverbelt Conference, with Noller averaging 19 points and 7.5 rebounds a game on the way to being named first-team all conference.
“I knew I was one of the senior leaders,” Noller said. “I just wanted to show all the younger kids all the obstacles that you’re gonna go through in life, once you get through it, you can be successful.”
Following the season, Noller was invited to play in the WBCA All Star game, where he helped the D3 Royal team to a win with nine points.
Noller’s excellence also went beyond the field of play, as he made extra efforts to succeed in the classroom, where he posted a 3.75 GPA, and in the Elk Mound community, where he has lived his whole life.
Noller now leaves Elk Mound having left an indelible mark on the program.
“He’s accomplished a lot in both sports he’s a part of,” Elk Mound athletic director Mike Schiszik said. “I was just really happy that he was selected, and he’s very deserving of the award. He’s done a great job on the field and in the classroom.”
“When I’m teaching, I go outside at recess, and I hear kids pretending to be him,” Chisholm said. “That’s when you know we got something special and that’s because of guys like Vic.”
“If I could recommend somewhere for someone to live or go to school, it would definitely be Elk Mound because the school’s great, and the community (brings) so much support,” Noller said.
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