The sky is the limit.
 
Something about that notion appeals to Josie Delaney. Perhaps it’s part of what drew her to joining the astronomy club at Hiawatha High School when she was a sophomore.
 
“It’s just a really cool subject for me, kind of nerdish I guess,” Delaney said of her cosmology interest. “It’s something that’s just always been interesting to me.”
 
But there’s also something about that phrase that has applied to Delaney’s earthly endeavors. It’s how she’s approached whatever task has been at hand – and there have been many in her youth.
 
And it explains how someone small in stature has become a significant contributor in her school, athletics and community.
 
“I’ve always been small and told I was short,” said Delaney, who noted that she was 5-foot-3½ on her last physical. “But that didn’t matter to me. I just tried to prove I could be a good player and being 5-2 or 5-3 doesn’t impede you in any way. I wanted to prove I could be someone.”
 
Delaney has done just that in her high school career and is this week’s CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week.
 
Her colleagues in the Big Seven League most notably know Delaney as the standout setter for Hiawatha’s volleyball team. During her four years, Delaney helped the Red Hawks reach heights the program hasn’t hit in more than two decades.
 
Last year, Hiawatha won its first Big Seven League title since 1997. This season, the Red Hawks followed with a 27-9 season that included a runner-up league finish to eventual Class 3A state runner-up Nemaha Central.
 
In her four years as a starter, Hiawatha posted a 99-43 record, including a 65-13 mark over the past two seasons.
 
“I wanted to make this program as good as I could,” Delaney said. “I wanted to bring the culture up higher than what it had been.”
 
Hiawatha coach Brenda Siebenmorgen attributed much of Hiawatha’s rise as a Big Seven and 3A power to Delaney’s presence at setter. She first caught notice of Delaney when she was in middle school and Siebenmorgen took her varsity team to watch a match.
 
“I saw right away that she was a setter in every aspect of it,” Siebenmorgen said. “Her hands are gorgeous and she’s very good with the ball. But she’s got awesome volleyball IQ, great court awareness and she’s such a leader, which is so important with setters.”
 
Not only did Delaney lead Hiawatha to team success, she enjoyed personal success along the way as well. With 849 assists this season, Delaney went over 2,500 career assists – a milestone few in the state have achieved in their careers in any classification.
 
“I’m very proud of it,” said Delaney, who finished with 2,534 career assists. “If I had told my freshman self that I would be getting 2,500 assists, I don’t think I would have believed it. I’m still in awe I got to get to 2,500 assists. It’s a great accomplishment and I had some great teammates.”
 

Dishing out assists isn’t something Delaney only does on the court – she’s also a guard in basketball. In fact, it’s a personality trait that Delaney carries over to her personal life as well.
 
When she was a freshman, she joined Hiawatha’s KAY club – an organization based on volunteerism in the school and community. A board member for the club for the past two years, Delaney has participated in numerous events with the club from organizing teacher appreciation days to lending a hand with the club’s leaf-raking outing for elder citizens in the community.
 
“I love that you help out a lot of people,” she said. “Volunteering is a great thing to do and we do a lot of that. We’re all pretty active in the community and it’s very satisfactory to see people’s faces when we do something to help them out. It’s just a great feeling of helping people that need it. I’m always quick to help out wherever I can.”
 
That extends to her volunteer work that she does at all kinds of events around Hiawatha, particularly during the summer. In between balancing her own athletics, Delaney has helped coach youth volleyball, basketball and swimming teams as well as volunteered at various camps.
 
“In the summer time, it’s always the busiest, but it’s always the best,” she said. “I go from one thing to another thing to another thing. But I get to go to everything and I just love being busy.”
 
In addition to playing volleyball and basketball, Delaney stays busy at school as the president of Hiawatha’s National Honor Society and as a member of the pep club, astronomy club and the Future Business Leaders of America, where she has been the club’s Student Council representative for the past two years.
 
She’s also been her class treasurer all four years, carrying a 4.0 GPA. Delaney scored a 30 on her ACT with a superscore of 31.
 
“I try to be involved in a lot of stuff. I try to be someone that people can look up to, a role model for underclassmen on what to do and what not to do. I do my best.”

Which comes as no surprise to Siebenmorgen, who only really gets to see Delaney’s impact at the school on the volleyball court. But even in a limited exposure, Siebenmorgen sees all she needs to know about what makes Delaney tick.
 
“It starts with her work ethic,” Siebenmorgen said. “She’s a worker and has no quit in her. She’s the one finishing first in the sprints and she’s lifting the most. She’s 5-3 but has a 26-inch vertical, which is a school record. I think she realized early on that all right, ‘I’m not going to be six-foot tall, but I’m going to play like I am.’ She worked on her vertical and is reaching as high above the net as our middle.
 
“People see there’s not much that’s going to hold her back or stop her. That’s a mentality thing she’s had from the start and is pretty inspirational for other kids. I definitely see that people look up to the things that she’s done as far as working hard. She takes a leadership role in whatever she’s doing.”
 
"Josie not only pushes herself athletically, but academically as well," said Hannah Oltjen, assistant volleyball coach and math teacher at Hiawatha. "Her need to become the best possible version of herself is evident."
 
Delaney plans to continue her volleyball career at Central College, a Division III school in Pella, Iowa. There she also plans to pursue a career in her other passion, math, with an academic path geared to actuarial science.
 
“It’s a lot of data analytics, statistics and calculus and stuff,” Delaney said of her career choice. “I just love math. I think I like the problem-solving stuff.”
 
Which translates to volleyball. As the Red Hawks’ primary setter for the past three seasons after sharing setter duties as a freshman, Delaney directed Hiawatha’s attack. As a former volleyball standout herself, Siebenmorgen said that presence was invaluable to the Red Hawks’ success.
 
"I’ve never had a setter just run the floor and in a non-bossy kind of way – just be like, ‘Hey, I need you here!’” she said. “Everything I remembered as a player being a hitter and staring at my setter and saying, ‘Please tell me what to do,’ she does. I love when a setter takes control of the floor because that’s their job in my eyes. And she does that and I knew right away that she would.”
 
“I think I try not to be bossy,” Delaney said. “I don’t want to come off as mean or know-it-all-ish. But I think that I just try to help people out and get them to be the best they can be. On or off the court. I just try to push them to be the best they can be.”