Everyone matters

By Bruce Boyer March Madness. It is an electrifying time of year for sports fans, concluding an exciting 2023-2024 basketball season. We have particularly noticed women’s basketball this season because of players like Catlin Clark. She eclipsed the all-time NCAA women’s scoring record and later passed Pistol Pete Maravich as the leading scorer in NCAA history. Clark raised interest in women’s sports nationwide.  To be perfectly clear, this devotion isn’t about one player but the culture of an entire team. The University of Iowa seeks to be a team where “everyone matters.” Their coach, Lisa Bluder, said: “… one of our values is everyone matters. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re the leading scorer or if you’re a person who seldom gets off the bench. To me? Everyone matters.”  How do they live out that philosophy when one player receives so much national attention? As Catlin Clark was nearing the national scoring record, you would think she would be taking all the shots. After all, this was her time! As she closed in on the all-time scoring record, sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke had a career night against Penn State. Stuelke averages 14.4 points a game, but against Penn State,...