50 years later, Van Horne champs will reign in Des Moines

DES MOINES -- Larry Wiebke caught himself.

"The kids are all excited," he said. "Well, they're not kids any more, are they? They're grandmas now."

The 1962 Van Horne High School will be honored Friday at the girls' state basketball tournament, 50 years after they won the state championship.

Unlike every other champion, the Hornettes reigned outside of Des Moines.

Because Veterans Auditorium was booked with a national bowling tournament, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union moved the '62 tournament to Waterloo.

The Hornettes were unranked, and they were small.

"Jo Ann Heitman was our tallest player, and she was 5-foot-8," Wiebke recalled. "The rest of them weren't much more than 5 feet tall."

Van Horne's first opponent was Garrison, a team which it had lost to three times during the regular season. The Hornettes won, 72-57.

Victories over Bennett and Blakesburg followed, then Van Horne beat Mediapolis, 62-59, to win the championship.

It was an all-senior team. Evelyn Brehm, Mickey Schallau and Marla Heitman were the starting forwards; Jo Ann Heitman, Marj Dutton and Jean Garbers started in the backcourt.

Dutton, Jo Ann Heitman and Schallau were all-tournament selections.

"We were small, but we were pretty quick," Wiebke said. "The girls were excellent passers."

Wiebke came to Van Horne in 1960, fresh out of Upper Iowa University. His first team got within one game of the state tournament. His second team won it all.

He coached a few more years, then got out -- partially because he knew five-player basketball was on the horizon, and also to move into school administration. He eventually married Brehm, and the couple still resides in Van Horne.

Wiebke said players will be coming from all over the country to reunite. Not in Waterloo, in Des Moines.