Creston’s Paup wins South Central Athlete award

Creston all-state basketball player Doryn Paup, also a standout in volleyball and track and field, has been named the 11th area senior selected as South Central Iowa Female Athlete of the Year by three regional newspapers.

The honor was created in 2013 as a joint venture by the Creston News Advertiser and Osceola Sentinel Tribune. Since then a third Shaw Media newspaper, the Adair County Free Press, has joined in the collaborative effort to honor the region’s outstanding graduating male and female senior athletes.

The other four finalists this year in a strong field of contenders from the class of 2023 are Taylor Lumbard of Diagonal, Noelle McKnight of East Union, Josey Dunbar of Clarke and Cadence Douglas of Lenox. There are nine area high schools covered regularly by the three participating newspapers.

Paup’s teammate as she joins the Simpson College women’s basketball team this year as a freshman, Nodaway Valley graduate Maddax DeVault, was the 2022 winner of the award.

“I remember Maddax getting it last year. It’s awesome. Definitely an honor between all of those schools,” Paup said in receiving the award from News Advertiser staff.

Paup ended her basketball career as Creston’s third all-time scorer with 1,054 points, trailing only Kelsey Fields and Brielle Baker. She also ranked second in steals and sixth in rebounds. Twice in her career Paup scored 39 points, a Creston single-game record in five-player basketball, and her 21.7 scoring average as a senior is the highest in Creston five-player history. She also averaged 11.7 rebounds per game as a first-team all-state selection by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association.

“Doryn 100% deserves to be mentioned in the same context as the other winners,” Creston girls basketball coach Tony Neubauer said. “It’s a rare combination when your best player in the gym is also your hardest worker, and the best person in the gym.”

Paup also ranked 15th in her graduating class with a 3.987 grade point average.

Paup was the standout of Creston’s volleyball team as a senior, earning Hawkeye Ten second-team all-conference honors. She was the team leader in four of the five major statistical categories. She had 210 kills — next highest on the team was 69 — 246 digs, 37 blocks and 24 service aces. She finished with 100 career total blocks.

“This is an awesome award for Doryn,” said Teresa Arkfeld, Creston volleyball coach. “She excels in everything she does and is very deserving. Doryn is a very kind individual and loves to help everyone. She is widely known in her community for all of the activities she participates in, and being the great athlete that she is. You never hear anything bad about Doryn other than she’s not mean enough on the court. We all wish there were more Doryns in this world!”

Paup not only had offers to continue in both basketball and volleyball in college before choosing basketball, she had made herself into a track and field prospect by qualifying for state in the discus throw with only two years of experience in the event. Paup placed 17th in the state meet in the discus with a throw of 111-5, after qualifying 18th with her career-best throw of 112-3. She improved from 92-5 as her best in beginning the event as a junior.

Her sophomore track and field season was hindered by illness and the 2020 season was cancelled during COVID her freshman year. She also contributed to regularly-scoring 4x400 and 4x800 relays and the 400-meter hurdles.

Maggie Arnold, track and field co-coach, said Paup’s all-around abilities fit the parameters of this award.

“To be the best regionally for what she has accomplished in high school is an excellent recognition,” Arnold said. “Doryn is a true testament to hard work paying off. She was not afforded the luxury of coming into winning programs and immediately finding success. She had to leave her comfort zone and put in the work in order to achieve what she did. She did it humbly and selflessly in order to proudly compete for her school, community and teammates across the entire state.”

Co-coach Clay Arnold echoed those sentiments.

“Doryn deserves to be recognized alongside some of Creston’s all-time greats,” Arnold said. “She grew up as friends with Kelsey Fields and followed her leadership by being teammates across multiple seasons. Taylor Briley (Tanner) has been her coach the last two track and field seasons and has ignited a competitive spirit within her. And, Natalie Mostek (Pettit) is a name I never let any athlete forget about — always asking them to strive to give the kind of effort she gave.”

Mostek and Briley were were South Central Iowa Athletes of the Year in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

While Paup never became a varsity softball player beyond a pinch-runner to utilize her speed, former softball coach Mike McCabe remembers her as the perfect teammate.

“Doryn is a terrific choice for the 2023 South Central Iowa Female Athlete of the Year,” McCabe said. “She will be humbled and honored. She was excellent in multiple sports. But as good as she was in the athletic arena, she’s an even better teammate and person.”

Like those previous Creston standouts cited by Arnold, Paup will become a collegiate athlete soon. She has been busy this summer preparing with a team-issued set of drills and workouts done on her own, while also traveling to Indianola for pickup basketball games and summer league games with other college players.

“We had summer league three times a week in June and once a week after that with girls from Truman State, Grand View, DMACC and Simpson,” Paup said. “I played against Bri Fields’ (Grand View player from Creston) team. It was a lot of fun. A whole new speed!”

Paup said the experience of meeting her college teammates before starting classes has been helpful in making the transition from high school.

“At first I was a little nervous, but once you start playing you’re just playing the game that you love,” Paup said. “They are really good athletes and I’m just starting out, but I was still able to score and play defense and get up and down the court with those players. All the girls are super nice. We’re going to a college tournament in Wisconsin the first weekend of August and I’m really looking forward to that. Cassie Nash, a fifth-year senior, organized that.”

One of the Simpson volunteer assistant coaches is former Creston and Simpson player Jenna Taylor, an All-American on Simpson’s NCAA Tournament team now working in Des Moines. She and Nash were teammates.

“It got to meet Jenna and talk to her when I went to one of the Simpson games last winter,” Paup said. “She came to one of our summer league games. She’s super nice and we connected right away. Coach (Brian) Niemuth talked about her and said she came to Simpson and worked hard and became an All-American. It’ll be fun to adapt and change my game to this level and see what I can do.”

At Creston Community High School, Doryn Paup did it all.