Jacqui Kalin

Kalin was born in Sioux City, Iowa, to Bruce and Linda Kalin, and is Jewish.[1][3][4] She has two brothers, Michael (a former high school All-State basketball player, and now a teacher) and J.B. (the youngest sibling), and a sister, Jenna (a high school principal).[3][4]

She attended North High School.[3] Kalin was valedictorian of her high school class.[5] In 2007 she was named Academic All-State by the Iowa Girls' Coaches Association (IGCA).[3]

Kalin played for the school basketball team for four years, leading it to a Class 4A Iowa State Championship in 2007, after which she was named to the 4A all-tournament team.[3] As a junior she was second team All State, and as a senior she was first team All State.[3]

In 2007 Kalin was named the Sioux City Journal Metro Female Athlete of the Year.[3] In her high school career she scored 1,143 points (third on North's career scoring list). As a senior she averaged 15.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.4 steals per game.[3] She holds the school records for assists in a season (146) and career (324), and for free throws in a career (245).[3] She was named MVP of the 2007 Iowa Basketball Coaches Association Goalsetter All Star Game.[3] She was named all-conference as a sophomore, junior, and senior.[3]

Kalin played for the high school soccer team for five years, cross country one year, and track four years.[3] She was named all-state in 2006 for the 400-meter hurdles, and holds the school and city record in the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.60).[3]

Kalin attended the University of Northern Iowa (UNI).[1]

In her freshman year in 2007-08, playing for the UNI Panthers, Kalin led the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) with an .899 free throw percentage (a school record, and the sixth-highest by any freshman in NCAA Division 1 history), and was named MVC Freshman of the Year and second team All-MVC.[6][7][8][3] She suffered a left ankle injury, and was out for most of 2008-09.[9][10][3][11] In 2009-10 she led the MVC with 89.7 percent free-throw shooting and was named first-team All-MVC and named to MVC Scholar-Athlete first team.[3]

In 2010-11 Kalin shot 91.0% from the free-throw line (ranking fourth nationally) and had the nation's fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio (2.51).[8] She was named the Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year, first-team All-MVC, MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, second-team College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America, Jewish Sports Review 2010-11 college basketball All-American, and the Most Outstanding Player in the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.[3][8] She suffered a torn right ACL while making a reverse layup in a pick-up game in September 2011, and redshirted in 2011-12.[12][10][13][3]

In 2012-13 she led the league in scoring (19.5 ppg; a school record), had the fourth-highest season free throw percentage in NCAA Division 1 history-and the highest of any senior (95.5%), and was named the 2013 Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year, the 2013 Scholar-Athlete of the Year (becoming the first player to win both distinctions twice in a career), the 2013 Marty Glickman Outstanding Female Jewish Scholar Athlete of the Year by the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Jewish Sports Review First Team All-American, MVC All-Conference first team, CoSIDA Academic All-America first team, and CoSIDA Academic All-District team.[6][3][14][15]

For her career Kalin was first all-time at UNI in scoring (2,081; 6th all-time in the MVC), 3-point field goals made (265), free throws made (484), free throw percentage (.920; the NCAA Division 1 career record, ahead of Shanna Zolman), assists (491), games started (136), games played (136), and minutes (4,352).[6][1][3][14]

Kalin earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science with an emphasis in sports psychology in December 2010, with a 4.0 GPA and summa cum laude, and a master’s degree in kinesiology/sports psychology in May 2013 from UNI.[16][17][18][19][4]

Kalin helped lead the Panthers to consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, as the team won back-to-back MVC Tournament titles.[19]

Kalin next played two seasons of professional basketball in Israel.[19] She played her first season for the Ramat Hasharon professional club in the Israel D-1 league in 2013-14, alongside Laine Selwyn and Megan Frazee.[20][1][4] She became an Israeli citizen, establishing dual citizenship.[2] She then moved to the Maccabi Ramat Gan club in the Israel D-1 league for her final season, playing for it in 2014-15.[21][1][22]

She played basketball for Team USA in the 2013 Maccabiah Games.[23][24] Kalin led the team with a 14.3 points per game average, and the team won the gold medal.[18]

Kalin was a member of the Israel women's national basketball team in 2014 during the qualifying tournament for the 2015 European Women Championship.[1]

Kalin was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Hall of Fame in 2014.[25][1] In 2017, she was inducted into the UNI Panthers Hall of Fame.[26] That year she was also named to the Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball 25-Year Team.[27]

In July 2015, she became the Coordinator of Women's Basketball Operations for the Drake University women’s program, followed by a season as Assistant Women's Basketball Coach for the 2015–16 Drake Bulldogs women's basketball team.[1][19]

She now works for Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin, as their staff development coordinator.[28][29]

• Jacqui Kalin (September 12, 2017). "I have the most HORSE wins," Des Moines Register.