INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State women’s basketball player Ashley Joens stands at the front of Morgan Reetz’s fifth-grade classroom at Irving Elementary School in Indianola on a weekday afternoon.
Joens, a student teacher in Reetz’s room, has a projector turned on next to her as she instructs the students to grab their blue packets.
“Turn to Page 36,” Joens says.
Everyone in the 22-student classroom quietly does just as Joens requests. The star basketball player for the Cyclones is, after all, in charge. During this part of class, Joens goes over fractions with the students and using clocks on her projector as models. The students are filling in their own clocks in their packets.
“They’re doing good,” Reetz says as she watches Joens with the students from the side.
This is how Joens, one of the greatest basketball players in Iowa State history, spends her summer. The Iowa City native, who has one season of eligibility remaining and plans to play in the pros afterward, is preparing for life after basketball.
Joens doesn’t know when that’ll be. But she knows what she wants to do when that day comes.
Teach.
“I’ve just always liked working with kids,” Joens told the Des Moines Register.
Joens began plotting her career goals in third grade.
During an assignment, Joens was asked to write down what she would be doing in 10 years. Joens can’t remember the exact wording but she can recall jotting down big goals.
She wanted play college basketball with her sisters, move on to the WNBA and study teaching.
“It was not said as nicely as that,” Joens said with a chuckle. “The grammar was really bad.”
But the point was clear. And thus, goals for the driven Joens were set.
In high school at Iowa City High, she volunteered at an elementary school by grading papers and working with small groups. She also helped teach some classes.
But the main focus has always been on basketball. Joens, who was one of the best players in the state in high school, got a scholarship at Iowa State and earned a starting spot right away. She made an instant impact for the Cyclones and began rapidly rising up the record books.
Joens accomplished her goal of playing with her sister, Aubrey, who spent the last two seasons with the Cyclones before transferring to Oklahoma. Ashley, meanwhile, was attracting the attention of WNBA teams and draft evaluators.
Joens, a versatile player on the floor, became a two-time Cheryl Miller Award winner, as the nation’s top small forward. She guided the Cyclones to three NCAA Tournament appearances. The lone year the Cyclones didn’t reach it was 2020 when the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
She re-wrote Iowa State’s record book and became the school’s all-time leading scorer last season while taking the Cyclones to their first Sweet 16 appearance in over a decade. While Joens was landing on draft boards and garnering more and more attention from WNBA teams, she kept working on life after basketball.
Joens majored in elementary education and worked basketball camps to be around kids more. She completed a teaching practicum — a warmup of sorts for student teaching — at Meeker Elementary School in Ames during the summer and fall. Joens got her substitute teacher license and filled in after Iowa State’s season ended in March.
“That really helped me,” Joens said. “Then I was in the classroom by myself.”
Joens enjoyed it. But playing pro basketball was her goal. Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly reached out to WNBA teams to get feedback on Joens earlier this year. The response was all over the place, with some teams saying Joens could be a first-round pick.
But Joens, who saw how much Iowa State was returning, opted to stay in Ames and return for a fifth season. Her return to school also gave her a chance to finish up her teaching degree.
There was only one part left.
Student teaching.
Reetz’s students are finishing up papers on Mayan civilization. They chose between writing about Maya architecture, farming methods or social classes. Joens, who is sitting at a table connected to Reetz’s desk, edits the papers and captions the students have put in with the photos for them.
“What’s this mean?” Mia Krizmanic, 10, asks Joens.
Joens, who has gone over the paper with a blue pen, has crossed out an extra letter the student has put in. She explains to her why it’s not needed before sending her back to her desk in the middle of the classroom. Moments like these are among Joens’ favorite in the classroom.
“Just seeing them, when they don’t understand something and then they’re like ‘Oh, that makes sense,‘” Joens said. “The ‘light bulb moment.’”
Joens isn’t like your typical teacher. She’s expected to be among the top handful of college basketball players in 2022-23. With Joens and a wealth of other experience returning to the Cyclones, Iowa State is expected to compete for a Big 12 Conference title and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
But you wouldn’t know it by talking to Joens or seeing her in the classroom. In there, she just tries to be another teacher.
Here, she’s “Ms. Joens.”
“She’s very humble,” Irving Elementary principal Derek Morris said. “She’s one of the best basketball players and she doesn’t act like it. It’s great. She’s just a great all-around person.”
That doesn’t mean it all goes unnoticed. In fact, it’s brought up routinely. Her students know what a big deal Joens is. Before the school year started, Reetz wrote to parents and students that Joens would be student teaching for eight weeks with her.
Reetz said one of the teachers down the hallway is an Iowa State fan and was excited to have Joens. So were some of the students who were also big Cyclone fans. Reetz even noticed a student in a separate classroom had a picture of Joens as her screensaver.
“There’s some huge fan girls,” Reetz said.
They want to take advantage of the unique opportunity they have with Joens. So, they pepper her with questions and autograph requests.
Can Breece Hall stop by for a visit? No.
Can they get signed basketball cards from her? Yes (she plans to make some for them).
How many famous people does she know?
“She’s got a lot of these NBA friends like Tyrese Haliburton and stuff,” said 10-year-old Charlie Jevne. “So, I ask her about a lot of her friends, stuff I wouldn’t know. It’s pretty neat.”
Joens indulges the queries but makes sure to get them back on track. There’s plenty of other things to do throughout the day. The students have work to get done. And so does Joens, who has eight weeks at Irving before moving on to Franklin Elementary School in Boone for another eight weeks.
Reetz said she’s making sure Joens has her classroom management skills down. Joens has to make sure students stay on task, get from one room to another and transition through different material during the day. Reetz, who left for a few days earlier this month, handed the classroom over to Joens as a sub.
She’s been impressed with how the Cyclones star has done.
“They love her and she’s very sweet,” Reetz said. “The kids are sweet. It’s an easy connection that I think a lot of them have made.”
Joens does have something unique to offer to students: Her experiences. So, she tries to incorporate some of the life lessons she learned from playing into her teaching. One of the biggest ones is about her work ethic on the court.
“They kind of see that relationship between school and everyday life so they can kind of understand, “Oh, Maybe I’m not so great at math right now but if I keep practicing and working on it, then I can get better and really improve and understand it,″ Joens said.
That’s why teaching may be a perfect fit for Joens ... someday.
She still has her sights set on the WNBA. With another strong season, Joens could be selected in next year’s draft. But teaching and coaching is her backup. Something she hopes to do down the road when she’s done playing.
It was hard for Reetz to comprehend at first. She figured Joens may want to go into broadcasting or coaching at a high level. But after meeting the star and being around her, Reetz quickly figured out Joens would be perfect around young kids.
“They do trust her and they know her and they feel confident with her,” Reetz said.
Joens will start her master’s degree in high school education and administration in the spring. She hopes to one day become a principal or athletic director.
Of course, her professional basketball career will dictate what exactly she does. One thing she does know for sure, her time at Irving will come to an end soon.
But she knows she’ll have fans for life from one of her first classrooms.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she says with a smile.
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