Jacey Bal, Norway High School’s top female athlete for 2015, missed playing sports after heading off to college.

A radiologic science student at Bellin College can’t find softball, basketball or volleyball.

“I grew up around sports and have played them all my life,” Bal said. “As soon as I went off to college, I was lost. I missed the competition. I missed the hard work and the feeling of pushing yourself past your limits.”

So what’s a girl going to do?

“The weight room became an outlet for me,” she said. “A place where I didn’t have to think about anything. It was a stress reliever.”

That led to another activity for the daughter of Jeff and Marlo Bal of Vulcan.

“After years of training in the gym, I stumbled upon bodybuilding and I became in love,” she said. “I loved the idea of working towards a goal. I’ve always loved competition, so I decided to just go for it.”

Bal made her first bodybuilding appearance earlier this month in the 20th National Physique Committee’s Fox Cities Showdown in Oshkosh.

Just getting to the stage was no easy task.

“Prepping for a show is no joke,” Bal said. “It is harder than any practice or game I’ve ever played in. It teaches you a lot, and I’m so happy I did it.”

And this from a young woman who was the Knights’ volleyball team most valuable player, a tenacious defender in basketball and the lead-off hitter and left-fielder in softball.

She placed fifth in Class B’s bikini division at the Fox Cities Showdown.

“The feeling of being on stage and showcasing all the hard work you put in, it is like no other feeling in the world,” she said. “It was such an amazing experience.

“Never in a million years did I think I would ever have the confidence to do something like this in front of hundreds of people. Heck, I didn’t even think I would survive prep, but here we are.”

The area has turned out other women’s bodybuilders. Breitung Township teacher and former Kingsford coach Kelly Bianco competed for 10 years.

Iron Mountain High School alumna Natalie Cavagnetto entered the world of competitive bodybuilding in 1992.

“Some bodybuilding but mostly fitness,” said Cavagnetto, who competed for eight years. “That still required having a muscular body but in fitness I did a two-minute routine to music consisting of dance, gymnastics and flexibility. It was brutal.”

She primarily competed in the ESPN Fitness America pageant in Redondo Beach, Calif.

“I still do guest appearances at shows and am looking to do a show in 2019,” said Cavagnetto, a fitness director. “I stay in pretty good shape.”

Bal wants to improve on that fifth-place finish in Oshkosh.

“That’s obviously far from the best, but we only have up to go from here,” she said, setting a goal of to just keep growing. “I want to be better. I want to learn more. I want to become unstoppable, undeniable and unbeatable in every aspect of my life.”