With the start of the 2018 girls’ basketball State tournament today at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Des Moines Register sportswriter John Naughton released a list of what he calls the 50 greatest high school girls’ basketball players in Iowa history. 1991 Jefferson-Scranton grad Kristi Kinne appears on the list. Married to former Iowa Hawkeye and NFL tight end Johnathon Hayes, who is an assistant coach with the Cincinnati Bengals, Kinne-Hayes made a name for herself both in high school and in college.

A four-sport standout in high school, Kinne helped the Jeffettes (later changed to Rams) to six-player state basketball tournaments in 1988 and ’91, the only two appearances in the history for girls’ basketball in a Jefferson-based program. Kinne is an inductee into the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Basketball Hall of Fame. She also excelled in volleyball, track & field, and softball.

Kinne concentrated on basketball in college at Drake University, where she was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year for the 1994-95 season and led the Bulldogs into the NCAA tournament. She played at Drake for Lisa Bluder, who left Drake some years ago to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes, where she has had great success.