Iowa Girls 6-on-6 Basketball: Benefits of Competition

In this segment from Iowa PBS’s More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa documentary, players and coaches describe some of the benefits of rural girls participating in high school sports.

Narrator: For most high school girls, making it to the state tournament was the ultimate experience; winning the championship, even better. But most players never made it there. Their names don't appear in its record books. They weren't mentioned in the newspaper headlines or inducted into the hall of fame, but they were an integral part of their teams just the same. And they are just as important to the history of girls' six-on-six basketball.
 
E. Wayne Cooley, Executive Secretary, IGHSAU 1954 - 2002: The girls' basketball team in a small community was the way the girl identified herself beyond being a name on a file folder in the principal's office. She possibly was not the best student. Maybe she wasn't the best musician, but she was one of the best basketball players, so she identified herself in the community, she was somebody. She was that girl that scores all the points or that girl who gets all the rebounds in the guard club.
 
Narrator: Who was this Iowa girl playing basketball, and what did she learn by participating?
 
Jill (Lorenzen) Sandvig Ventura H.S., 1980 - 1984: I think for me, it gave me confidence. I was very, very shy, right? I gained the confidence playing with a team and knowing I could help, to be a part of something and to go somewhere. I think that helped me in the long run.
 
Jan Jensen Elk Horn-kimballton High School, 1983-1987:  just the values that are instilled when you are a competitor and you're on the team and everything you learn through winning and losing. Sometimes I really think we learn more from losing because it reveals your disappointment and your character, but how you bounce back from that, and all those life lessons.
 
Zola (Emerson) Mullenbach Little Cedar H.S., 1931-1933: It was probably after I was shooting baskets. I had to make a free-throw this one night. As I stood out in front of the basket on the line, I was shaking and I heard somebody in the audience say, "she usually makes her free throws." That made me feel real good.
 
Larry Niemeyer, Coach 1959 - present: I can remember parents telling me that people would say, "mom, come here. Come here, mom! Joyce just left the house." They lived next to Joyce Elder, one of my good players. They were heroes. We went to a track meet down in Winterset, and I couldn't find my post guard. She was a hurdler for me. I kept looking for her and kept looking all over for her. There she was sitting on a curb, signing autographs. I can remember going to the mall and shopping, and people who waited on us knew my kids. We got on the elevator at the hotel and a couple of older gentlemen said, "I know you, you're number 50, Joyce elder. I know you, you're number 20, Julie Goodrich." Little kids from Adel, Iowa, that's how important girls' basketball was in this state.