Former Mosinee High School standout Kole Heckendorf matched his collegiate high with eight pass receptions and rambled for a career-best 179 yards in leading North Dakota State to a season-opening 41-6 victory against Austin Peay in last week’s season opener.
Heckendorf’s performance earned him offensive player of the week laurels in Football Championship Series (I-AA) play from The Sports Network.
The 6-foot-2-inch senior’s efforts helped the Bison move up a spot to No. 1 in the coaches’ poll this week.
Heckendorf has caught at least one pass in 26 straight games and in 33 of the 34 contests he’s played, all starts. Heckendorf’s day featured touchdown grabs of 5, 43 and 69 yards from quarterback Nick Mertens, a junior who was making his first collegiate start.
In 2007, Heckendorf led the team with 48 receptions for 766 yards and six scores. His catch and yardage totals placed him third in the Great West Conference. He also topped the Bison with 52 catches and 752 yards as a sophomore in ’06, scoring five times. Heckendorf caught passes in 10 of 11 outings as a freshman, again leading State with 38 receptions that went for 470 yards and two TDs.
Heckendorf was an Associated Press and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association first-team All-State selection, hauling in 63 aerials for 1,257 yards and a Wisconsin standard of 19 scores as a prep senior in 2003. That was after establishing state records with 116 catches for 1,714 yards—adding 11 touchdowns—during his junior campaign. His high school totals of 235 receptions—since broken by Wonewoc-Center’s Micah Fulton—for 3,831 yards and 36 TDs were state marks.
He also won a state track title in the 300 hurdles and made the all-conference team in hockey three times.