Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke gives back to community by hosting first youth basketball camp

MARION, Iowa (KCRG) – Around 140 kids came out to the YMCA in Marion to participate in Iowa forward Hannah Stuelke’s first youth basketball camp.

“I love kids. I’m not the best at speaking in front of them yet, but luckily my mom is here to help me out,” Stuelke said.

“It was really fun watching Hannah interact with the kids, because she’s never been in a situation like this. With this many kids, all just watching her all the time,” Hannah’s mom JoAnna Mantz explained.

Stuelke’s parents along with some of her high school friends, helped run the two sessions for kids in first through sixth grade. It was important for the Cedar Rapids Washington gradate to host something close to her hometown and give back to a place that gave her so much.

“I think it’s really important, especially being at the Y. I grew up working out here and this is where I got my roots from,” Stuelke said.

“I knew Hannah grew up in the Y here. I had seen her from the time she was little, through high school. Shooting at the Y, working with her mom and her dad, just getting better on her own game. I knew that she had a special place in her heart for the Y. Her aunt worked at the Y, her grandma worked at the Y, so it’s kind of a natural fit. I reached out said, hey, you know, are you wanting to give back to the kids and come and do a camp? She jumped at the chance,” Executive Branch Director for the Marion YMCA Dale Emerson said.

The camp focused on fundamentals of the game, but the most popular station was meeting Stuelke. Campers could ask her questions, take photos with the Hawkeye star and get her autograph.

“She is a person just like everybody else,” Emerson said. “She was nervous coming, but she’s having fun with the kids. She’s being silly and I think that’s what hits home the most. She’s not just the crazy person you see on TV that’s really good at basketball. She’s a person that she laughs, she likes to have fun and is silly as well,” he added.

Since their run to the national championship game, the entire Hawkeye women’s basketball team has reached a somewhat of a rock star status. Stuelke said she’s still getting used to the attention.

“It’s always kind of fun when she gets recognized, but I also see her introverted self thinking, oh no, another person coming to talk to me,,” Mantz said. “She’s growing, she’s learning and she’s coming out of her shell.”

“When my parents ad I go out to eat, there’s usually someone that will come up to me. It still blows my mind every time that people want to meet me and they want to take a picture with me,” Stuelke said.

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