A hero far from home

Dodge County Wildcats junior forward Zoe Heimer was fighting for space in front of the Warroad net when a rebounded shot found its way near her stick in overtime of the Class A state championship game – next thing she knew, she was being mobbed by her teammates.

Thanks to her quick reflexes and perfect shot placement, Heimer would score the biggest goal in Dodge County Wildcats history. The one that won the program its first-ever state title.

“I knew that I had the rebound right there, so I shot it and I just hoped it went in… I saw it cross the line and I thought, ‘This is the craziest moment of my life.’ I never thought this would happen,” said Heimer.

While Dodge County’s state championship trophy will sit proudly in its case at the Dodge County Ice Arena, Heimer and her medal will take a journey down Highway 218 to a different home: Blooming Prairie.

As is the case for most top-flight athletes, Heimer’s ascent to the top has not come without sacrifice.

Growing up in Blooming Prairie – a town where the local high school does not have a hockey team of its own – Heimer has always known her path would be different from most of her peers.

After playing on co-op teams in Austin and Dodge County in her younger years, she knew she wanted to pursue hockey – even if it meant traveling away from her hometown.

“I’d always gone to Blooming Prairie schools growing up, but I didn’t really feel like I fit in as much because I was the only girl who played hockey in Blooming. It was my seventh-grade year, and they were talking about cutting the co-op between BP and Dodge County for the next season. So, after my seventh-grade season, I told my mom I wanted to go to Kasson-Mantorville,” said Heimer.

Prior to her eighth-grade year, Heimer open-enrolled at Kasson-Mantorville High School to become a Komet and keep her eligibility to play for the Dodge County Wildcats.

The decision added roughly 30 minutes of drive time to her daily commute to school, but it also turned out to be the perfect fit.

According to Heimer, the transition away from home was a bit difficult at first, but the help and sacrifice of her parents made everything go to plan.

“It’s a lot of gas,” said Heimer with a laugh. “My mom works in Dodge Center and would drop me off on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. My dad would drop me off on Tuesday and Friday and then he’d go to work in Austin. It was a big commitment, but my parents were super supportive of it. They were fine wherever I was as long as I was happy.”

The Wildcats had been trending upward since Heimer joined the program, but the junior said the mentality of the team shifted her freshman year.

“We lost to Albert Lea in the section finals two years ago. After we lost to them you could see that there was a lot of frustration and anger. Everyone in the room kind of knew when we came together the next season that we were going to make it to the state tournament. We made it the next year, but we lost in the championship, so that fire was still there. You could tell that we really, really wanted it. There was something different in the air this year, like we knew it was ours to win,” said Heimer.

While Heimer and her team’s dreams came true earlier this month on the ice at the Xcel Energy Center, the junior still credits the days spent at Blooming Prairie’s outdoor rink as the place where she fell in love with the game.

“I have an older brother, Jackson [Wilson,] and he started playing hockey when I was younger. My dad, Aaron, works at the Riverside Arena in Austin too. We all started skating at the outdoor rink in Blooming, and I think it was those early days together where I fell in love with the game. I always looked up to my older brother, so it was like, ‘If he wants to play hockey, I want to play hockey too.’ I even used to make my grandma play mini sticks with me,” said Heimer.

With one more season left as a Wildcat, Heimer will return with her sights set on even more history: back-to-back titles.