(Kimballton) Former Elk Horn-Kimballton superstar Jan Jensen has followed up her incredible playing career with great success as a coach. Jensen joins the Why I Coach podcast.
She’s held her current role as associate head coach for the University of Iowa Women’s Basketball team for 17 years. Between playing and coaching she’s been in college basketball for over 30 years. Jensen explains her love for sports has always been there. “My mom always told the story that when I was two they gave me a doll for Christmas. It was the newest, fanciest doll at the time and my brother got a football. I crawled over to that football and I wouldn’t let it go.”
Jensen has shown a deep rooted allegiance to Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder whom she played for at Drake. Bluder offered Jensen her first assistant coaching job while still at Drake and the duo has spent the last 20 years at Iowa. So did Jensen ever want to take over her own program? “Sometimes people question why I didn’t take a head job. There have been calls from Indiana State, Bradley, Illinois State, and Wichita State when they are open. Those are opportunities I likely could have had based on conversations I’ve had with people. I looked at Xavier which would have been out of the normal scope over in Ohio. I think there is some wisdom that comes with not trading a great thing for a title or a few more dollars. For me to move to Terre Haute, Indiana just to be a head coach, to get a little more money, to have a different challenge, and then make that be a step to maybe the head coach at Indiana…I’m kind of a relationship person so I wasn’t going to trade my three hours away from Kimballton where I could be home in a day for dinner and come back and be ready for practice the next day type of life for that. I had some challenges at times wrestling with whether or not I should become a head coach and then when I settled it all became very clear that this was where I wanted to raise my family.”
She admits if and when the Iowa job is ever available she’d be interested. “If the opportunity ever presented itself and we continue to be successful and Lisa ever retires that might be the next step that I would be excited to take and take over here, but that’s not what drives me everyday. If this is how I roll until my retirement I think I have one of the greatest roles possible in the country. I get to do what I love with the people I love at an institution I love.”
Jensen notes any time the Drake job comes open that has been the toughest one to turn down. Ultimately as she looks at her career she has no regrets. “My players are like family. I’m older now, they used to be like sisters, but now they definitely could be my daughters. I don’t think you can be successful in coaching without really being close to your kids and being real with them and spending time with them off the court. I would say that’s probably been a career highlight is my relationships that far exceed the playing court with the young women. If there’s an authenticity and a mutual love and respect I don’t think there’s too much that can’t be accomplished. God’s blessed me so much in every realm. If he took me tomorrow I don’t believe that anybody could’ve had a better life than myself.”
She serves as Iowa’s recruiting coordinator which is quite an experience in itself. For example, they landed one of the top recruits in the country when Dowling Catholic’s Kaitlin Clark committed. “She made a USA basketball team, kind of a feeder team that goes into the Olympics. That tournament was going to be held in Bangkok. Lisa and I decided if we want to have a shot we have to go. It was us and Notre Dame as the front runners. Iowa State was in there and Oregon. We went to Bangkok for 48 hours. It took us 22 hours to get there. We watched two days worth of games which were two games only. Then we had to get back to finish the rest of our recruiting. We always kid that we would have hated Thai food if we didn’t get her, but since we did get her we love Thai food.”
Jensen says her abilities as a player opened a lot of doors for her in coaching. She led the nation in scoring both in high school at 65 points per game and in college when she averaged 29 points per game. Under the guidance of Lisa Bluder and Jan Jensen the Hawks made it to the Sweet 16 in 2015 and the Elite Eight in 2019.
Previous Coaches
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)
Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum
Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
