Hall of Fame
No matter the sport or game, Thresia Elskamp impacted it in a variety of ways. A three-sport star growing up in Potosi, Wisconsin, Thresia was a two-time Six Rivers West Conference Player of the Year in basketball, an all-conference softball player, and a versatile volleyball player. The ability to continue playing multiple sports brought her to Madison College in the Fall of 2009.
Thresia joined a women’s basketball program that was on the rise and finished second in the nation the previous season. Under the leadership of head coach Jessica Pelzel, the WolfPack were not to be denied during the 2009-2010 season. Champions of the North Central Community College Conference and Region 4 for the first time, Madison College arrived at the NJCAA Division 3 Championships and rolled through its three opponents to claim a national championship. Thresia, a 5’7” guard, started all 34 games for the 31-3 WolfPack, and averaged 8.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.4 steals, and 3.0 assists. She was rewarded with all-conference accolades and was named Region 4 All-Tournament and NJCAA All-Tournament.
With basketball season over, Thresia followed coach Pelzel over to the softball diamond and helped Madison College to an eight-win season. The third baseman provided the team’s top bat with a .444 batting average that ranks sixth all-time for career average at Madison College. With 40 hits and 11 walks, Thresia was a force on the base paths, recording 21 stolen bases and scoring 26 runs. She finished with seven triples and four home runs. Defensively, she posted a .918 fielding percentage with just a dozen errors at the hot corner. Her efforts didn’t go unnoticed, earning all-conference and all-region accolades.
Ready to run it back as a sophomore, Thresia’s athletic career hit a pause when she suffered a season-ending injury four games into the 2010-11 basketball season. With a medical redshirt in hand, she came back even stronger in 2011-12 to focus solely on basketball. She started 24 of 26 games and finished the season averaging a team-best of 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals, 3.6 assists, and 1.0 blocked shots per game. An all-conference and all-region recipient, Thresia helped Madison College finish 17-10.
As a basketball player, Thresia currently ranks second in career steals with 227, fifteenth in both assists and blocked shots, and twenty-first in rebounds. Her 81.9% shooting from the free throw line as a sophomore remains the seventh-best from the line for a season in team history. Her numbers on the softball diamond leave her ranked fifth in career triples, twelfth in total stolen bases, and sixteenth in home runs all-time. Thresia also earned N4C Academic All-Conference as a freshman.
“Thresia was one of the most hard-nosed players I have ever coached. She would literally run through a wall to get a loose ball or steal,” stated former basketball and softball head coach Jessica Pelzel. “If we kept a charges stat, I’m sure she would be leading by a landslide and never caught. She wasn’t afraid of anyone coming down the lane, had a crazy knack for getting steals, and has a high basketball IQ. She was the heartbeat of the 2010 national championship team. It seemed as she went, so did we. Once we got to the national tournament, I knew that group wouldn’t be denied, and she would be the leader of that pack!”
After Madison College, Thresia played basketball at NCAA Division II Georgia College for two more years, averaging 5.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Health Education and currently resides in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she works as a nurse and freelance photographer.
