For the record(s), Hasko excels

Rachel Hasko has the best of both worlds at Racine Lutheran.

Check that — Hasko IS the best of both worlds at Lutheran.

The senior holds the career assist records in both basketball and soccer with the Crusaders. She finished her basketball career with 197 assists and is at 18 assists in soccer with a couple weeks left in the regular season.

Hasko is also second all-time in both basketball scoring and single-season assists.

She has been playing soccer longer than basketball — she began soccer at age 4 and basketball at age 9 — but said basketball has become her No. 1 sport. She still plays for the Racine United soccer club in the fall.

“They used to be close, but during my sophomore year, basketball took over,” Hasko said. “I’ve had a natural passion for basketball since I started, so I kept working harder and getting better and better.”

Hasko will be taking an ambitious schedule this fall when she attends Lakeland College in Howards Grove, just outside Sheboygan. She played in a fall exposure league and was recruited to play basketball for the Muskies, but she earned a potential spot on the soccer team as well.

“I originally had intentions of doing basketball only,” Hasko said. “I talked to the soccer coach while I was there on my official visit and gave her a copy of my resume. She said if you want a spot, you have it.”

She likes Lakeland, which has a student body of under 4,000, for two reasons. It’s small, and she’s used to that having attended Lutheran, which has an enrollment in the low 200s. And it’s a Christian school to serve her spiritual needs.

“I wanted another smaller school because I work better in smaller setting,” Hasko said.

Lutheran soccer coach Kevin McNamara knows Lakeland is getting the real deal with Hasko.

“Her work ethic is off the charts,” McNamara said. “She’s a great worker and she gets everyone to work that much harder. She’s just a gifted athlete, no matter what she does.

“She definitely going to be missed.”

Crusaders basketball coach Ben Walther said it isn’t just her athletic ability that will be missed.

“She is thoughtful and kind and always willing to help her friends and classmates in many ways,” Walther said in an email. “Rachel has always put forth great effort and strives to be the best student she possibly can be.”