Fun & Games: Fremont-Mills’ Alley a true four-sport star for Knights

For Lana Alley, success has never come at the expense of joy. 

The Fremont-Mills senior has spent four years proving that an athlete can wear a bright smile as comfortably as a game face, thriving as a four-sport standout while rejecting the growing trend of single sport specialization. 

When the competition demands it, Alley’s quiet determination takes over. 

It’s a balance that has made her The Opinion-Tribune’s 2025-26 Mills County Female Athlete of the Year.

A standout in volleyball, basketball, softball and track – the sport she will compete in at Northwest Missouri State next season – Alley has never had much use for sports specialization nor interest in limiting her athletic interests.

She’s hard pressed to pin down which is her favorite sport.

“It’s really what sport I’m playing at the time,” Alley said. “When I’m in track season I’m like, ‘Yeah track is definitely my favorite sport.’ But then in volleyball I feel like its volleyball. It’s hard so I just say ‘All of them. I don’t think I could pick a favorite sport if I tried.”

A self-described “outgoing bubbly person,” Alley has always tried to bring that attitude to every sport she participates in.

“I think I figured out along the way that you want to have fun and have fun moments with your team, but when you get on that start line, you lock in,” she said. “You always know what you need to get done. I knew before every race and every game what I needed to get done. 

“Everybody says it, ‘Just go out and have fun.’ And every parent says it. But it’s so true. If I go out and have fun and I make people smile, we play better. It always helps me too. I tend to overthink a lot so if I just smile and laugh through it, then I go out and execute. You just need to know when to turn on that switch. It’s a mentality.”

That “mentality” is what sets Alley apart, according to longtime Fremont-Mills girls track coach Kyle Fichter.

“She’s one of those kids who is laid back but serious when she needs to be serious,” Fichter said. “She knows when to turn it off and have fun and be loose and help the younger kids while not taking things too seriously. She knows when it’s time to turn it on and that we can count on her no matter what sport it is. She knows when to be the athlete she can be.”

But don’t get him wrong, Fichter said. Alley is a competitor. He calls her one of a handful of the greatest athletes to every wear a Knight uniform. In his 30 years as a coach at the school, she is the best “all around” athlete he’s coached.

“She’s just so naturally talented at everything for sure,” Fichter said. “On a selfish side, I would say track is probably her best sport because there are so many different things we could have done with her that we didn’t. She’s willing to put in the extra work when its asked and know she’ll be there in the big moments.”

The youngest of six children to parents Steve and Angie Alley, theirs is an athletic family whose names are all over the Fremont-Mills records books.

“They all have a love of sports and competition,” she said. “We make competitions out of everything. We’re on vacation and it’s who can make the biggest splash in the lake. We have eating competitions. It’s how our family has always been. I’ve always wanted to be the best and beat my siblings at everything.”

That competitive fire showed in every season for Alley.

This past spring, she won her second straight gold in the Class 1A 100-meter hurdles while anchoring the shuttle hurdle relay to gold. Alley would go on to finish as the runner up in the 200-meters, missing out on gold by a fraction of a second, and help the Knights to a fifth-place medal in the 4x100-meter relay to bring her career medal total to 11.

Last week, Alley was named to the Iowa Softball Coaches Association Class 1A All-State team as an outfielder after setting new school records for batting average (.506) and stolen bases (58). 

She also earned first team All-Corner Conference honors as a senior in both basketball and volleyball.

The training, the skill development and the conditioning all cross over, Alley agrees, but she sees bigger links between each of the sports she played: the teammate connection.

“As a team if you play one sport, maybe the connection isn’t always there or as strong but if you play four sports with five or six of the same girls all playing the same sports, you’re together every day in training and workouts and games,” Alley said. “It brought our connection and togetherness so close. I feel like that made us more successful. If someone was upset one day, we could read each other and get their spirits high and not just mentally, physically too. We knew what each one of us needed to compete together.”

Alley holds or shares more than a dozen school records in three sports at Fremont-Mills – a fact that surprises her as much as anyone. 

“If you had told me my freshman year I’d win four gold medals, I would have never believed you,” she said. “You have to work hard for what you want. It’s the only way to get it.”

But it’s not the wins or the career records or the gold medals that stand out to her in her illustrious career filed with big moments. It’s how she and her teammates handled a devastating loss that looms in her memory.

During Alley’s junior year at state, she and her 4x200-meter relay teammates had thought they secured the school’s first relay gold medal since the 1960s only to have the rug pulled out from under them. After the race, officials ruled a Knight runner made four consecutive steps on the lane line during the race, nullifying their victory.

“It wasn’t my favorite moment, of course,” Alley said of the disqualification. “But it was a mindset change. We were winning and winning and winning and then that happens and we know then we can’t take anything for granted. You have to not get too in your head and live in the moment and work hard for everything because nothing comes easy. I wish it came easy. But it doesn’t in sports. So, we learned to savor the moments.”

Alley and her teammates took the disqualification hard that night. They cried. They lamented. They made a plan to bounce back.

And bounce back they did. They came back to win a pair of gold medals and a silver the next day at state.

“We had our first state championship and then we get it taken away,” she said. “We were all crying. We were all heartbroken. We had worked so hard for that moment. But we knew it wasn’t over. We knew we had a whole day for the state finals, and we didn’t want to hang our heads on that. We came back together and it brought us closer. We had this extreme low and then we came right up. I think it kind of trauma bonded us.”

As important as track is to Alley, it wasn’t always her favorite sport. That spot belonged to volleyball up until her junior year.

“Volleyball is still probably my favorite sport to play,” she said. “It was always fun. With Coach (Taylor) Sudmann there was never a dull moment. We always had so much fun. I’ve learned if you have fun and lock in, you’ll be successful.”

A six-rotation player for the Knights, Alley could have played anywhere and likely been one of the team and conference’s top hitters, but she was needed as a setter and that’s where she excelled.

“I feel like I’ve always been a utility player,” she said. “In middle school I was a hitter then I was a libero and then I was a setter. I played all over in club and I’ve gotten used to it. Setters have to be leaders, the communicators who have to run things and get the flow of the team going. I’ve always tried to take that role. It’s so fun when you’re a part of something and help lead a team.”

Alley’s success on the track her junior and senior seasons changed her perspective – “Track was always pretty fun too,” she said – and shifted her college plans from volleyball to track.

Northwest Missouri State was a legacy choice for Alley. Her father played baseball for the Bearcats, and a sister was on the cheer team.

“I had a lot of schools reach out to me for track,” she said. “Northwest Missouri State was always in the back mind. So, I thought if they ever reach out, I’d visit hands down. Three days after they reached out, I visited. I fell in love with the (track) program and the coaches and the community.”

She committed shortly after.

Alley, who grew up south of Tabor, spent most of her summers working on her grandparents farm and developing a love of animals. She plans to major in animal sciences of “something ag” in Maryville. She hasn’t ruled out becoming a veterinarian.

Letting go of her college volleyball dreams wasn’t easy.

“I’ve been playing volleyball since I was eight and playing club since I was 10, the youngest you can play club,” Alley said. “I met my lifelong best friends in club. Volleyball will always have a special place in my heart. I feel like if I didn’t love Northwest and didn’t love track the way I do, I would have definitely gone somewhere to play volleyball. I can’t wait to get started.”