FAIRBURY - Fairbury senior and multi-sport star Sara Huss made her commitment to Concordia official Tuesday by signing letters of intent to both the volleyball and women's track and field team.

Huss verbally committed to Concordia back on June 4. For her, signing the papers was a huge relief.

"It's really exciting," she said. "This is just the next step I guess in the process. It's nice to have everything nailed down and figured out. There's a lot of comfort in knowing I have the next step planned out."

Huss just wrapped up her senior season in volleyball, leading the Jeffs in kills (373) and digs (177). She finished her volleyball career with 1,059 kills, 198 blocks and 336 digs. Concordia head volleyball coach Ben Boldt, who has the Bulldogs ranked No. 17 with a 22-4 record right now, is very excited to work with the 6-foot-3 middle next season.

"She can play high above the net," Boldt said. "There's not a lot of people that can do that. I think Sara is obviously talented, but character wise, that's what really attracted (me and track coach Matt Biesel) to her. I think that's what's going to set her over the edge - she's going to put in the work."

Huss has excelled at numerous events in track and field, particularly the 200 and 400 meter dash, the 1600 meter relay and discus. Huss said she'll be a thrower for the Bulldogs, mainly working with disc.

"I might try some javelin," she said. "We'll see how that goes. Maybe just try something a little different."

Biesel said Concordia's throwing coach, Ed McLaughlin, already sees a "huge potential" for Huss to excel in both discus and javelin.

Huss qualified for state track in discus, the 400 meter dash, 200 meter dash and the 1600 meter relay in 2019. She finished 10th in prelims in the 400 with a time of 1:01.08 - less than a second away from making finals. In discus, she finished 12th with a throw of 118 feet - two inches. She was the first leg of the 1600 meter relay team that finished 11th with a time of 4:14.66 - the fastest time of the season.

Huss' 200 meter dash time at state this past May clocked in at 27.49, tying her for 20th overall in prelims.

Huss first qualified for state track in discus when she was a freshman in 2017. She finished 12th then with a throw of 117' 4". The following year, she placed 8th at state, throwing 124' 1". For her senior year, Huss has loftier goals.

"For discus, I want to break 150 (feet)," she said. "I don't know if it's going to happen, but I'm trying to do everything I can personally to set myself up for success."

Huss' PR in discus is 139' 6", which came in the Syracuse Invite on Apr. 11 of this year. That's only 4' 6" away from the automatic qualifying distance for nationals at the NAIA level. The discus is also the same weight, 2.2 lbs., for females in college as it is in high school.

Huss has also been a standout on the basketball court. She led Fairbury in 2018-19 with 12.4 points, 11 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. Her 11 rebounds per contest was the fourth most of any player in Class C1 last season.

This winter, Huss and her teammates are poised to improve off of their 10-12 finish last February. The Jeffs return all but one starter, and lost only three seniors last year.

"We have a lot of business that we feel like we didn't get to accomplish last year," Huss said. "We had a new coaching staff last year, and that kind of threw us for a loop. But, I think we're more comfortable playing with each other now, and now we're comfortable with the coaches, and I think that'll set us up for great accomplishments this year."

Huss' mother, Kris, was a hall-of-fame women's basketball player at Creighton University from 1990-1994. Although Sara won't be playing basketball in college, she's honored to carry on the family tradition of playing college athletics.

"It's really special," Sara said. "Just being able to move onto the next level. Every child dreams of being able to go onto the next level, and not everyone does. So, I'm very blessed and honored to be able to do that."

You can follow Tommy on Twitter @Tommy_NCN.