Huelman among Hall of Fame inductees

DES MOINES -- Monica Huelman had the tools. And the drive.

"She wasn't just a kid with ability," Harold Shepherd said. "She spent a lot of time working at it. If the gym wasn't open, she would go to the rec center.

"And every time her dad (Ken) went to the school to work, she went along to shoot baskets."

Huelman, who led Vinton-Shellsburg to the 1995 Class 3A state championship, will be inducted Friday into Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union basketball Hall of Fame.

She will be joined by Kristi Kincaid of Waterloo West and Linda Sayavongchanh of Des Moines Lincoln.

A 6-foot-3 post, Huelman led Vinton-Shellsburg to three state tournament appearances (1994-96). The Vikettes won the 3A crown in 1995 and was second to Carroll in 1996.

In her seven state tournament games, she averaged 21.4 points a game while shooting 63 percent from the field with 38 blocked shots. Her eight blocks against Crestwood in 1995 remains a 3A state-tournament record. She earned first-team all-state honors twice and finished her high school career with 1,809 points with 663 career rebounds.

"She really developed a nice shot from the elbow that served her well in high school and college," said Shepherd, a long-time coach at Vinton who currently leads the program at West Delaware. "And her defensive skills were something you didn't see very often in a big girl."

The 1996 Gazette Female Athlete of the Year, Huelman went on to play at Iowa State and was one of the key components to Coach Bill Fennelly's rebuilding of the ISU program. She helped the Cyclones reach the NCAA tournament four times and is best remembered for hitting a key 3-point shot in the Cyclones' 1999 victory over heavily-favored Connecticut in the NCAA Sweet 16.

Huelman is the nursing sales manager for Country Landscapes in Ames.

Kincaid starred for Waterloo West from 1984 to 1987, averaging 16.5 points a game as a junior and 19 points a contest as a senior. She led the state in rebounding as a junior.

Sayavongchanh led Lincoln to three state tournament appearances (2000-02). As a senior, she was named to the Class 4A all-tournament team, setting a 4A single-game record when she scored 34 points in the Railsplitters' first-round win over Sioux City North.