03/07/2026
Girls Basketball History in Lake View IOWA.
LV had a team as early as 1909, and the girls played the famous Iowa 6 on 6 OUTSIDE because the school did not have a gym. They were able to move indoors in 1917 after the School that we now know as the “Old School” was built.
In 1918 the season had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of the Spanish Flu
By 1921, the team of 7 young ladies: Including names you may recognize like
Helen Wetzstein, Velma Armstrong, and Mary Therkelsen had a winning record and were invited to DSM play in a tournament at Drake. The girls lost to Hampton in a close game
The girl’s continued to play up to 1928 when the team mysteriously disappeared. (Rumor has it that Dr. Speaker felt that hard exercise was not healthy for young ladies)
In 1950 Girls Basketball is back again, and by 1966 Lake View-Auburn won the county championship. They were known as “THE MIGHTY HAWKETTES”.
In 1968 both the boys & the girls’ basketball teams won the county Championship
In the early 1970’s Lake View had several POWERHOUSE teams. Players like Jolene Blass, Sue Fredrichs, Kay Pick, & the Olberding sisters were local celebrities. The girls narrowly missed making it to the State Tournament in 71 & 72, but finally made it to the SWEET SIXTEEN in 1973. That year, the girls were defeated in the quarter finals, but won the Consolation game.
1975 – They won the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP in a thrilling double over-time in front of a crowd of 15,000. Our “Mighty Hawkettes” from the tiny towns of Lake View & Auburn managed to win the State title before the class system for larger and smaller schools was established.
Upon returning home after their victory, the girls were greeted by a 10 mile caravan of Police cars, fire trucks, police escorts and even a snow plow. Thousands of people lined the Highway from starting in Scranton, all the way to Carroll. Everyone was waving banners and cheering. There were a lot of tears on the bus, and even more when they stopped briefly in Auburn to greet a large hometown crowd, and then drove on to a packed house at the gym in Lake View.
The next year in 1976, the girls repeated their STATE Championship win against arch rival Manilla.
In 1977 talk was begun to divide the tournament into a 2 class system. This might have helped our “Tiny but Mighty Team”, but our girls still finished third that year, by winning the consolation game.
In 1978, the girls placed second, and our Boys also played in the State tournament placing 2nd out of 300 Class 1A schools. They also won the coveted Sportsmanship award.
By 1981, the class system was established and the Hawkettes won the state Class 2-A championship.
The state finally changed to 5 player game in 1994.
Now the State tournament has 5 classes, and selects 8 teams from each class to participate. That is a total of 40 teams at State, in comparison to the 16 teams back in the golden days of 6X6 Iowa High School Girls Basketball.
THE END of an ERA
IOWA
