Jan Jensen stands at the center of Carver-Hawkeye Arena during an early fall practice, her iconic long bangs swept across her forehead. A whistle resting in her mouth and left hand tucked in her pocket, Jensen waits for players to get in position after giving drill instructions. She pauses for a beat.

“Here we go,” she says.

The whistle blows.

Not a second later, the high ceilings of Carver-Hawkeye Arena fill with the sound of a nationally ranked women’s basketball team at work.

The sharp squeaking of sneakers on shiny hardwood. The thumping of rubber and synthetic leather. Teammates shouting encouragement and reminders.

When Jensen is talking to her team, however, the court is dead silent.

“You win championships when you freaking just play,” Jensen says to her players between drills. “You know what to do. Compete.”

Jensen is one of the most recognized faces in the state. At the University of Iowa, they’ve just handed her the keys to one of Iowa’s most cherished possessions: its women’s basketball team.

In the tiny town of Kimballton, around 200 miles from Iowa City, there was no doubt Jensen would succeed. To understand Jensen is to understand where she’s from. Those small-town roots have helped shape the person — and coach — she is today.

After repeatedly making history with her players, Lisa Bluder, who had led the Iowa women’s basketball team for 24 years with Jensen as her second in command, announced she was retiring.

The news came as a surprise to the Hawkeye community, but considering Bluder was coming off of what could be the most defining year in women’s college basketball history, it’s hard to go up from there.

Not 20 minutes later, Jensen, 56, was named the next head coach of Iowa’s program. Iowa’s athletics director Beth Goetz officially welcomed her to the program on May 15, 2024.

“I was never pining for this office,” Jensen said, gesturing to the space around her as she sat behind her desk.

When she got the offer for her dream job, however, Jensen said she was ready to take that step.

Jensen comes into this position with Iowa in a state of flux.

Iowa women’s basketball has lost two of its most recognizable faces: Bluder, who is Jensen’s former coach, mentor, and friend. And Caitlin Clark, the player who catalyzed seismic changes to the world of women’s basketball.

But Jensen is ready for that change.

“We’re making a new era,” she said.

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With a population of just 282 as of 2023, Kimballton, Iowa, is a textbook Midwest small town.

Kimballton’s most prominent attraction is a series of statues inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales sculpted in 2013 by artist Trop Muller. The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, and Thumbelina are some of the metallic statues depicting Andersen’s stories. The figures are situated in a circle, surrounding a fountain centerpiece depicting The
Little Mermaid.

The real selling point, however, sits just across the street.

Lugger’s Tavern is the only establishment in Kimballton getting much business during an early winter visit to the town bar, located smack in the middle of Main Street.

The sun has just dipped beneath the horizon, casting the town in hazy blues and oranges. It is right before 6 p.m., and several cars are already parked out along
the street.

The front door of Lugger’s creaks open, revealing Kimballton’s hidden gem.

Raspy, aged voices are heard chatting about sports and politics and everything in between. A “Make America Great Again” sign hangs in the window, weeks after the results of the 2024 election were confirmed. Kimballton, much like most of rural Iowa, is deep red.

This isn’t just any small-town bar, however. This is Jan Jensen country.

An entire wall is dedicated to the hometown celebrity, with newspaper clippings, posters from Iowa’s recent historic seasons, and photos of the famous former Kimballton resident framed on the wall. Her jersey from the four years she played at Drake University — from 1987 to 1991 —  is at the center, the blue number 13 displayed under a warm, yellow light.

Lugger’s Tavern is a derivative of a childhood nickname from the bar’s previous owner, Doug Jensen, who is Jan’s brother. Jan said Doug earned the nickname “Lugger” because he was “one of those guys that are big, but
they’re not fat.”

It was Doug who introduced Jensen to basketball. She said as a kid, she followed her brother around, playing football and other sports together. Nine years older than Jensen, Doug acted as a coach to his little sister.

“When he passed away, the town lost a lot,” Jensen said.

Doug died unexpectedly of a heart attack in February 2020 at 59 years old. Ashley Jensen, Doug’s daughter, has owned the bar since her dad died, keeping the doors open for patrons.

“When my dad passed, it was a very, very troubling time for everybody,” Ashley said. “But it didn’t matter how busy Jan was. She always made time to talk to me.”

For the residents of Kimballton, Iowa, Doug was a centerpiece in the community.

A close family friend of the Jensens would always say Doug could walk into a room of 100 strangers and walk out with 99 friends. According to Ashley, Jan was the exact same way.

To Ashley, Jan is not only family but a mentor, too.

“I’ve always idolized her because she’s as humble as they come,” Ashley said. “What you see is what you get.”

Right below the Drake jersey in Lugger’s is a black and white photo of Jan Jensen from years ago. Words Jensen wrote to her brother before he died are tucked inside the frame:

“Before I ever had a coach, I had a brother.”

“When I had seen that picture, I instantly broke down in tears,” Ashley said. “How she felt about my dad as a brother and coach is exactly how I looked at him as a dad and coach.”

—

Before Jensen’s brother died in 2020, her mom Yvonne caught pneumonia and died at 78 during the NCAA tournament in 2015.

Her dad Dale died at age 86 of pancreatic cancer in 2023, the day Iowa was slated to play Louisville in the Elite Eight during the NCAA tournament. Jensen’s team would go on to beat Louisville and upset undefeated South Carolina, all while their associate head coach grappled with the death of
her father.

“A lot of my instrumental people — they passed away,” Jan Jensen said, gazing down at her hands.

Melodi Jenkins, Jensen’s older sister, sits by the pool in her younger sister’s backyard on a warm, early fall day. She scratches her hands through the Jensen family dog’s tightly wound,
curly white fur.

Jenkins said between herself, Jensen, and Jensen’s partner Julie Fitzpatrick, the three of them make a tight-knit team.

“Julie is so fantastic. She’s like my blood sister,” Jenkins said. “We’ve lost the core of our immediate family, but us three together — we’re going strong.”

Jenkins has seen her younger sister climb to the status of celebrity in the state of Iowa. She said her sister frequently gets stopped when they are going out for meals, people clamoring for a photo or conversation with the leader of the Iowa women’s basketball program. She has seen Jensen build a life for herself and her family, branching out from their hometown.

But when Jenkins was recalling her greatest moments of pride for her sister, she didn’t think of the basketball court at all.

Rather, she remembered what it was like when Jensen came out to her family.

“Jan was brave, and I’m proud of her for that, too,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said there was some hesitation among family members when Jensen first came out. Growing up in small-town Iowa, Jenkins said the largest concerns from family were about what the community and its residents would think.

When Jensen gave Jenkins the call in which she came out, though, she said there was no hesitation in her support. “Jan, I got your back. No matter what, I got your back,” was Jenkin’s immediate response.

“It has always been that way between us,” Jenkins said.

Despite the worries from her family, Jensen’s authenticity reminded the residents of Kimballton that, in Jenkins’ words, “It’s still Jan.”

“The small town area surprised me,” Jenkins said. “They became a lot more open-minded than I thought they would, and I think it’s because of her charm.”

—

The rustic red brick and traditional, glossy wood flooring of Elk Horn-Kimballton High School’s “Dane Dome” are rather typical of a high school gym.

In the 1980s, Jensen made headlines in that same gym, averaging a staggering 66 points per game in high school as she scorched back and forth across the gym, leading the nation in scoring during her senior year.

Tom Petersen, the athletic director and girls’ basketball head coach at Elk Horn-Kimballton High School, grew up with Jensen and had the opportunity to witness his childhood friend in action countless times. Petersen gestures to a stage with faded orange curtains drawn shut in the Dane Dome, recalling a memory from when Jensen was still a player.

Back when 6-on-6 basketball featuring an extra player on the court reigned supreme in Iowa, Petersen said the school had to set up steel bleachers on the Dane Dome stage — which had no other seating options — because so many people showed up to support Jensen.

“The whole town of Kimballton would be at games,” Petersen said.

Jensen moved on from Elk Horn-Kimballton High School to play for Bluder at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She was then hired to work as Bluder’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Drake. When Bluder got the head coach offer from Iowa, Jensen and former assistant coach Jenni Fitzgerald followed her to Iowa City.

Now, 25 years into coaching at Iowa, Jensen still values her small-town roots, and that love is reciprocated, according to Petersen.

“When she’s back, you can just see all of the older ladies just [flock] to Jan,” he said.

Whenever she visits town, Jensen makes a point to chat with the people who have supported her since high school. He said when Jensen returns to town every year for Tivoli Fest, a Danish cultural celebration, she will stop and chat with anyone who asks for a second of her time.

“The passion that she still has, not for the game of basketball but for the kids, for her players, is what I see the most,” Petersen said. “She just has not changed.”

Current players at Elk Horn-Kimballton High School now play in a newer gym in the school, but Petersen said the team still comes to practice in the dome.

One of those players is Petersen’s daughter, Taryn. She looks up to Jensen and hopes to play basketball in college herself one day. She stays back after practice to work on her three-point shot, running drills in the darkened gym where Kimballton’s finest used to play.

“There have been a lot of girls that have gone places here,” Taryn Petersen said. “So, I’m coming in here and trying to keep the tradition going.”

—

Back in 2017, Jensen covered her office with memories and pictures of the people and moments that had led her to this point. According to a report from The Des Moines Register, a smattering of her children’s drawings, family photos, and newspaper clippings decorated her space.

Over seven years, two national championship runs, and a head coaching designation later, Jan Jensen’s values are still present in her office space in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Family photos still decorate the walls. A quote from entrepreneur Amy Rees Anderson hangs on her wall as well, reading, “Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”

Of course, there are some differences seen in the now-head coach’s office.

An Indiana Fever jersey featuring the number 22 and former Iowa basketball player Caitlin Clark’s signature hangs in the corner, suspended by a white hanger on a door handle. A basketball and remains of a net cut after one of Iowa’s victorious matches sit behind her desk. Jensen has already established a deep legacy that will be left in Iowa’s history books.

Before she was officially recognized as head coach, before Iowa’s second run to the NCAA championship game, Jan Jensen was already grappling with what it means to live in the moment while making history.

“I have a lot more yesterdays than I do tomorrows,” Jan Jensen said in an interview with The Daily Iowan in 2023. “You get to the point where you get a little better about trying to sort through the minutiae. You get a little better about trying to really stop and smell the roses. You start to realize time goes fast. There’s no guarantees, so let’s just focus on what’s
really important.”

A year later, that’s exactly what she’s doing. The title and expectations may have changed, but the energy she brings to the court — and the people she cares about — hasn’t.

“I try not to look too far out or too far forward. I just try to enjoy where we are … It’s just being authentic and being in the moment,” Jensen said. “You make mistakes. You learn. You grow.”