Editor’s note: The Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2024 induction ceremony takes place May 4 at the Pullman House in Menominee. A limited number of tickets are still available at the Superintendent’s office at Blesch School and the Principal’s office at the high school for $35. Each week, the EagleHerald will spotlight one of the 12 inductees. This week’s feature is on Ashley (Taccolini) Hansmann, Class of 2003.
MENOMINEE — Ashley (Taccolini) Hansmann’s athletic gifts were on full display from the moment she stepped foot into the halls of Menominee High School.
From basketball to volleyball to track and field, few student-athletes in the history of Menominee Maroon athletics can match the sterling resume that Hansmann authored throughout her four years at Menominee High.
One of the few individuals that the term “multi-sport standout” truly applies to, Hansmann will chalk up another accomplishment in a lifetime full of them when the 2003 graduate is inducted in the Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2024.
The induction ceremony takes place at the Pullman House in Menominee.
Hansmann, the only female member of the Class of 2024, made Menominee High School history right from the start after she and Korry Schwanz became the first two freshmen brought up directly to the varsity level for the Menominee girls basketball team.
“Ashley is one of the finest all-around female athletes to wear a Maroon uniform,” former Menominee girls basketball coach Pete Mayhew, himself a member of the Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame said. “She excelled at the varsity level from her freshman season. She was an outstanding defensive player.”
A model of durability, Hansmann started every game, except for three Senior Nights, during her four years on the hardwood.
Hansmann was part of two Great Northern Conference champion teams (2000, 2002) and three District title winners (2000-02), while the Maroons won a regional crown in 2002 before advancing to the MHSAA Class B State tournament quarterfinals.
She helped the Maroons go 19-0 in the regular season in 2000, the first undefeated season in Menominee history, and was a member of two U.P. Class A-B Teams of the Year.
Hansmann is the only Maroon female basketball player to earn All-GNC honors as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. She was a three-time All-U.P. selection (2001-03) and two-time All-State Honorable Mention (2002-03).
Hansmann collected 850 points and over 600 rebounds in her career and was recognized as one of the top 100 players in the state of Michigan her junior and senior years.
As impressive as Hansmann was on the court, she was equally dominant in track and field as one of the top point scorers for the Maroons for four seasons.
Hansmann competed in the maximum of four events every meet and rarely did not place in each one.
She was a part of the U.P. champion 800m relay team as a junior and won the U.P. title in the 100-meter dash as a senior, breaking the U.P. Division 1 record with a time of 12.68 seconds, a mark that she held until Chelsea Jacques of Calumet set the new standard (12.55) in 2012.
Hansmann still holds the Menominee High School record in the 100m with a time of 12.58 seconds.
Hansmann was All-GNC, All-U.P. and All-State during all four years of track and field. She won a total of 14 medals in four trips to the U.P. Finals.
For good measure, Hansmann also competed in volleyball as a junior and senior, earning All-GNC laurels in the process. She led the Maroons in blocks and currently holds the Menominee High School record for most digs in a game.
Hansmann accumulated 10 varsity letters over her four years: four in basketball, four in track and field, and two in volleyball.
After graduating as co-valedictorian in 2003, Hansmann moved on to Western Michigan University, running track for the Broncos for one season before a broken foot put an end to her track career.
Shifting her focus to the classroom full-time, Hansmann graduated from WMU Magna Cum Laude in 2007 with a degree in nursing before going on to work in various hospitals in Chicago for five years.
Deciding to return to school, Hansmann obtained her Certified Nursing Anesthesia Degree from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. She works for the University of Minnesota hospitals in Minneapolis as a nurse anesthetist.
She has made several trips with Doctors Without Borders to provide medical care to earthquake victims in Haiti, as well as providing medical care to the impoverished in the Dominican Republic.
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