IHS to honor Carlson

Becky Carlson, who in 2006 coached Iola High's girls to the only state championship in program history, will be inducted into the Don Bain Hall of Fame during a Jan. 17 ceremony. Carlson also coached state champions in basketball and volleyball in Hillsboro, and led Marmaton Valley's girls program to several solid seasons before she retired last spring.

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Sports

January 3, 2025 - 2:08 PM

Becky Carlson, who coached Iola High's girls basketball team to a state championship in 2006, will be inducted into the Don Bain Hall of Fame Jan. 17. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Becky Carlson, whose hall of fame coaching career included three state championships in basketball, another state title in volleyball, and 533 career victories at stops in Hillsboro, Iola and her alma mater Marmaton Valley, will be the newest inductee into the Don Bain Hall of Fame in Iola Jan. 17.

Carlson, who coached Iola’s girls to the 2006 state championship — the only state title program history — will be honored after Iola’s contest against visiting Wellsville.

“I’m very humbled,” Carlson said. “You see the names of the coaches who are in there, and you really wonder if you’re at their level, especially when you’re just doing something you’ve loved, and you’ve been able to do it your whole life.”

Carlson’s coaching career, which extended to her youth when she helped coach younger girls on the softball diamond, ended with her retirement announcement in April after leading Marmaton Valley to a substate championship game appearance.

She’s barely had time to reflect on her coaching career.

“Right now, I’ve been so busy that I really haven’t had time to miss it,” Carlson said.

On top of co-managing the Allen County Country Club, Carlson also helps babysit a grandniece in Kansas City once a week. 

Becky Carlson gives her Iola Fillies a pep-talk during the 2019-20 seasonPhoto by Erick Mitchell / Iola Register

CARLSON’S love of sports took root as a child growing up in Elsmore. With little else to do to fill idle afternoons, she and her cousins would gather at her grandmother’s driveway for some spirited games of basketball.

Rough and tumble doesn’t begin to describe the style of play, she chuckled.

“My cousins were 10 years older than I was, and they were ruthless,” she said. “If I’d go into the lane, my cousin would swat the ball away and push us up against the garage.”

That’s where she learned to perfect her double-pump maneuver, to fake a hard drive to the hoop long enough to get her cousin to jump, then to pull the ball back just enough for him to fly by.

“That’s where I learned the sport,” she said.

With Carlson playing point guard, Elsmore’s grade school teams went undefeated in both the seventh and eighth grades.

Had it not been for Title IX, the federal legislation guaranteeing equal access for women and girls to play high school sports, her playing days would have ended at the junior high level.

It wasn’t until Carlson was a sophomore at Marmaton Valley that girls sports were introduced at the high school level, for the 1973-74 season.

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