(Atlantic) An Atlantic resident and former Harlan girls basketball player will attend the girls state basketball tournament this week for a 43rd consecutive year.
Jolene Roecker is a leader of the ‘Tournament Girls Forever’ group that started going to state tourney games together in 1980. “My husband Todd was in education. He was a teacher and coach in Glenwood. Just got talking to some of the other wives of the coaches about our love for basketball. We were young mothers then and we thought we’d go up for a day. So we made the trip to Des Moines and stayed all day for the games and then came back that night.
For Roecker it’s easy to pinpoint two of the most memorable trips. “When Atlantic went in 1999 our daughter Kami was a substitute at that time as a sophomore, but then in 2001 they went back to state again and Kami was a starter that year. That wasn’t the day that we normally go, but all of my friends and our ‘Tournament Girls Forever’ came early just to be able to see Atlantic play.”
Over the years it developed into an overnight stay and a group as big as 14 gals. “We just love basketball and basketball games. We look forward every year to meeting up with each other. We stay at a hotel and we get together and just laugh late into the night. We pick up where we left off the year before. It’s just a special time.”
Roecker was asked by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union to pen a special letter inside this year’s state tournament program detailing her experiences over the years.
Jolene Roecker:
