NEWELL, Iowa (AP) — The streets of Newell and Fonda are quiet. Rural decline has taken a toll on these northwest Iowa towns with main street storefronts shuttered and vacant houses scattered here and there.
Yet the heart of these communities separated by 9 miles isn’t hard to find. It still beats at the Newell-Fonda High School gym, where many of Newell’s 850 residents, Fonda’s 600 and folks from surrounding farms dress in blue and fill it up to cheer on their beloved girls basketball team that is known across Iowa.
With 21 of the school’s 71 girls in grades 9-12 playing on the varsity or junior varsity teams, the Mustangs are an outlier. Participation in girls basketball across the country has declined even as the popularity of the college and pro games has never been higher. Iowa’s own Caitlin Clark has been credited with a lot of that of late, but participation numbers in her home state and many others are down.
“When I first started coaching girls basketball, every team you played had a good point guard, a good shooter and a solid post player and then they could build from there,” Newell-Fonda coach Dick Jungers said. “Now, some of the teams we play are struggling to have maybe even one or two good players in the whole program. It’s kind of concerning, but kids are putting their time elsewhere.”
The drop in Iowa has been bigger than in most states and almost unimaginable given its long history in the girls’ and women’s game. Iowa was first to hold a state tournament for girls, back in 1920 when they played six-on-six, and Clark is one of the most famous players in the women’s game.
A handful of Iowa high schools have disbanded their programs due to lack of interest, many have only enough players for a varsity team, and it’s not uncommon for junior varsity games to be two quarters because JV players also must suit up for the varsity games that follow.
Basketball is still queen in Newell and Fonda, and has been since Jody Maske took four teams to the state tournament from 1995-2002. He turned the program over to Jungers, who is 527-83 with four championships and 16 state tournaments in 24 years. The Mustangs have played in the state final seven of the last eight seasons. Everyone who cares about girls basketball in Iowa knows they are a powerhouse.
The Mustangs opened this season 14-1 with an average winning margin of 34 points — they led a recent opponent 56-2 at half — and have been ranked No. 1 since knocking off the team that beat them in the state final last March, Council Bluffs St. Albert.
Senior center Jocee Walsh said, “If you know Newell-Fonda, you know we play basketball.”
Who’s got next?
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, participation in girls basketball across the country dropped from 451,600 in 2000 to 356,240 in 2025. Volleyball surpassed basketball as the most popular girls team sport a decade ago and has grown from 380,994 participants to 492,799 since 2000. That’s a 21% drop for basketball and 29% increase for volleyball.
Using raw data — the number of schools reporting their participation numbers varies year to year — Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Indiana and Iowa have seen the biggest declines. Fewer than 10 saw increases.
In Iowa, girls basketball participation has fallen 38% since 2000 from 9,401 to 5,856.
Other pipelines for the college and pro game are still relatively robust, including the elite clubs.
Greg Turner, director of basketball for the Amateur Athletic Union, said he has noticed a decline to a lesser degree in programs his organization sanctions. The AAU season runs opposite the traditional winter basketball season and draws girls who are serious about improving their games or playing in college. AAU media officials did not respond to requests for participation numbers and Turner said he wasn’t authorized to release them.
Clark’s prodigious numbers and style of play over the past several years are credited with creating a surge of interest in women’s basketball. While the sport has enjoyed unprecedented viewership and attendance, participation at the high school level has yet to get a bump.
Even Clark’s alma mater, Class 5A Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines, has seen a decline. Coach Kristin Meyer said she would have about 40 girls go out for basketball when she arrived 10 years ago. That number was 28 this season.
Meyer and Jungers are on an Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union task force formed last year to explore possible solutions.
Coaches say club volleyball programs and girls wrestling have siphoned players from basketball. Club volleyball season conflicts with basketball and fewer girls want to play multiple sports. Girls wrestling became a sanctioned sport in Iowa in 2022-23, and more than 2,000 have taken it up.
Coaches also say basketball skills, more than in other sports, are hard to develop and that the disparity between serious and casual players has never been greater. They said girls tend to get discouraged and quit by middle school if they struggle. The physical aspects of the game — the running and bumping — also turn off some players.
Youth programs are key
Dowling’s Meyer suggested doing things a new way on the grade-school teams that feed the high schools. She said playing three-on-three games until fifth grade would give everyone more opportunities to shoot, develop skills and stay interested. Meyer also said more women in their 20s and 30s with a basketball background are needed to coach at the grade-school level because they typically are more relatable to a young girl than a dad coach.
“I mean, who would you rather hang out with if you’re that age?” Meyer said.
At Newell-Fonda, kids typically start playing when they’re in third grade, but this year a second-grade team was formed. Of 21 second-grade girls, 17 signed up. Playing basketball would seem to be just what girls from Newell-Fonda do if they have athletic talent.
“I think it’s what you do even if you don’t have athletic talent,” Andrea Vanderhoff said, laughing. “Everyone just wants to be a part of it.”
In Newell, the games are community events where a pregame supper often is served in the school cafeteria to raise money for other activities. Buena Vista County sent 1.5 million pigs and hogs to market last year, so naturally pulled pork sandwiches were on the menu before the game against Storm Lake. Those who can’t get into the gym stand in the hallway and poke their heads through the door to check the score. Home games also are livestreamed and get as many as 2,500 views.
“In Newell or Fonda, what are you going to do if you’re not going to basketball games?” Jungers said.
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AP youth sports: https://apnews.com/hub/youth-sports
Eric Olson, The Associated Press
