Kimballton Resident Jan Jensen Named Iowa Women’s Basketball Head Coach

(Iowa City, IA) – After the announcement of former Head Coach Lisa Bluder’s retirement, Associate Head Coach Jan Jensen was named the sixth head coach of Iowa women’s basketball, starting the 2024-25 season.

The local Kimballton, Iowa resident formally made headlines around the southwest Iowa region in the 1980s for Elk Horn-Kimballton High School. She played in a different era of high school girl’s basketball that many know as the 6-on-6 version of basketball that has since transitioned to the Iowa high school basketball that we know today. Throughout her senior year, she led the country with a total of 66 points per game back in 1987 and was inducted into the IGHSAU Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

After high school, she went to play at Drake University under Coach Bluder, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1991 and her master’s degree in 1996. She led the nation in scoring as a senior and was the Gateway Conference Most Valuable Player, a Kodak Honorable Mention All-American, a member of the All-Gateway team, and the GTE Academic All-American Player of the Year. Jensen is now just one of two Drake Bulldogs to have her number retired at the Knapp Center. After her collegiate career, she went to play for BTV-Wuppertal in the European Professional Basketball League in Germany where her team won the German Cup.

Jensen has served as the associate head coach for Lisa Bluder for over 20 seasons, working with Bluder for 24 years at Iowa and eight years at Drake University. Alongside Bluder, Jensen has helped Iowa to 22 postseason appearances, 18 NCAA Tournaments, five Big Ten Tournament titles, and made it to back-to-back National Championships.

Coach Jensen will continue her role at Iowa as an integral piece that made Hawkeye basketball so special for the last 24 years. An introductory news conference for Coach Jensen will be this Wednesday, May 15th at 1:00 p.m.