Jacey Huinker '15 Recruiting Profile

Update - April 5, 2014 - I will be playing for Team Iowa this Spring/Summer - and will be playing in both tournaments with Team Iowa and team camps with Southeast Polk - my spring/summer schedule is posted!  Thanks!

Update - March 15, 2014 - I had the honor of being named Prep of the Week - http://altoonaherald.desmoinesregister.com/article/20140317/ALTOONA03/303170023/Prep-Week-Jacey-Huinker-SEP-girls-basketball

Update - March 9, 2014.  I wanted to share great news with you about my season.  Our team ended up finishing 2nd in state in Iowa's largest class 5A.  We beat #8 CR Washington to get to state and then upset #2 WDM Valley & #4 Waterloo West before losing to #5 Dowling Catholic in the Championship.  I averaged 6.7 points, 5.7 assists, and 7.6 rebounds in the 3 state tourney games, and set a Class 5A record for most assists in the State Tournament with 17!

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Hello my name is Jacey Huinker. I am a Junior in high school and my passion is basketball. I am involved in volleyball and track as well, but nothing has the same connection to me as basketball. I have been playing since preschool for my school district and now in the summers I also play for the Central Iowa Ballers, an AAU team meant for girls around my town who want to primarily play for their school teams, but also want more games on the side. My team and this sport are a huge part of my life. Our team is honestly a second family and my best friends are also my teammates. We all understand our role and work on it to help make our team the best it can be. Which brings up the question, what is MY role?

On my team this year I am the role of a leader. We only have two seniors, so me and the two of them are the leaders for this team. I am the most vocal out of the three of us so I have to lead the team on the court in the ways of yelling out changes in defense or the next play we might run. Position wise, my role is everything. My coach knows she can put me in anywhere, so she calls me her "utility". I have played Post (Forward) my entire life until high school and then I was switched to a Point Guard. So now, I can play any of the positions! This year I will most likely run Point Guard and guard the other teams' posts.

An example of this is last year in the State Semifinals I guarded Ankeny's D1 point guard, while in the State Championship I guarded Dowling's 6'2" post! I believe my biggest role is to be a rebounder. Being 5'9" is tough in basketball, but you have to hold your own. The way I do this is I always box out and I have to rebound. Rebounds are my strength and my key focus. It seems like such a small thing to focus on and want to get better at, but if you think about it, rebounding stems everything else in the game. Without the rebound, the offense can't score a second-chance basket; and without a rebound, the defense can't get on offense and score. That is why rebounds are very important to the game.

In 2013 as a sophomore on a team with 5 seniors, my role during the regular season was limited to 6 minutes a game.  But as the season went into the post-season, my role increased, with the high point for me being our Class 5A State Tournament, were I averaged 25 mins and 6 pts per game in the Semifinals and Championship, (which we won!).  Also, I had a great summer in my new role, playing extensively and averaging 8-10 points and 8-10 rebounds per game.

With my experience and passion for basketball, my dream forever has been to play college basketball; with my ultimate goal to play Division 1. I am working as hard as I can to get better at my weaknesses and perfect my game as much as possible. I feel playing college basketball is within reach and I am going to give all I can to reach it. Right now I am going to focus on my team and finishing off my last two seasons of high school basketball as best I can, and in the end it is truly up to how hard I work and how bad I want it for me to make it into the next level.