While Iola High School junior Zoie Hesse continues to recover from a severe knee injury she remains a presence for the IHS Mustang softball team as they prepare for their season opener Tuesday against Chanute.
Hesse injured her knee less than a week removed from taking second in the 190 lbs. weight class at the KSHSAA State Championship. Hesse’s performance at the state wrestling meet helped propel her as February’s Iola Register Athlete of the Month.
It was a week later that Hesse and her sister, Cayleigh Rutherford, were participating at the Youth State Wrestling Tournament when the injury derailed her and at least a part of the upcoming softball season.
“It was difficult because it was me, my sister (Breighlyn Rutherford) and another girl from Humboldt,” Hesse said. “My focus is definitely to get healed, but also make sure those girls are still hyped and excited for the season.”
Last month, Hesse became the first Iola High School female silver medalist in school history. Hesse spent just over 3 minutes on the mat while en route to the state title match. Opening with a pin of Concordia junior Isabelle Alexander (21-18) at the 1:01-mark, Hesse pinned on opponent after another with victories over Smokey Valley junior Livia Miller (26-13) then Hoisington junior Nevaeh Graves (22-7) in 35 seconds to put her into the finals.
Hesse fell to senior two-time state champion Abby Brenn of Winfield by second period pin. Now weeks removed from their showdown, Hesse feels the match would go another way if she had another opportunity. However, with Brenn graduating this spring that match likely will not take place unless the two somehow wrestle at a higher level.
“It was good, but I should have done way better,” Hesse said. “It happens, people make mistakes, but where I got was what I wanted. The year before I didn’t even place.”
For the Hesse household, receiving the Allen County Area Athlete of the Month in 2026 has become a family tradition. After Cayleigh Rutherford was voted by Iola Register readers as Allen County Area Athlete of the Month in January, she said she hoped to be as famous as her sister Zoie one day.
Hesse credits much of her fame from the little girls she interacts with while volunteering for youth sports and not so much what she does on the mat, court or softball diamond.
