KMA Sports Hall of Fame Inductee: Gail Hartigan

(Treynor) -- Each weekday from now until August 26th, KMA Sports will be announcing the inaugural KMA Sports Hall of Fame class. Throughout the 2016-17 sports year, these 20 inductees will have special induction ceremonies, but August is designed for the announcements.

Today's inductee is one of the state's greatest basketball coaches. Treynor's Gail Hartigan has won nearly 700 games in her incredible career that also includes 13 state tournament appearances and the 1994 state championship.

However, while Coach Hartigan's terrific history of wins is impressive. Her exploits as a teacher, mentor and molder of young women stands out even more. Hartigan points at belief and faith in her players as a big part of her success on the court.

"I think a lot of it is believing your kids," she said. "Having kids believe in what you're doing. Having a lot of faith in what you're doing. I'm just proud of how the girls, even after they graduate, and how successful they become, they still come back and talk to you."

The shining moment in the basketball coaching career of Coach Hartigan, who was also a successful volleyball coach and still is a great track coach, came in 1994 when her team won the first five-player Class 1A state championship.

"We had some fantastic players at the time," she said. "We were really lucky at that time, too. We had some games we were behind and came back to win. But we had some good girls."

Hartigan, the former Gail Ahrenholtz, was a prolific 6-on-6 basketball player at Manilla and started her coaching career at Lake City in 1975 before moving on to Woodbine and eventually Treynor. Before Iowa made the switch to the 5-on-5 game, Hartigan remained a major proponent of 6-on-6.

"It was a fun game," Hartigan said. "The kids could specialize a little bit more so that was good. Looking back, I think if we had switched earlier we would have been more successful. But I was one that fought that nitty gritty down til the end."

Hartigan will be inducted as part of the inaugural KMA Sports Hall of Fame class later this winter.

KMA Sports will announce a new inductee each August weekday morning during the 7:50 AM sportscast. Track the Hall of Fame announcements/inductees below:

FALL

Football: Announced August 26th at 7:50 AM

Volleyball: Angie Spangenberg, Red Oak/Harlan (Induction: 9/27)

Boys Cross Country: Ray Graves (Induction: 9/29)

Girls Cross Country: Missy Buttry Rock (Induction: 9/29)

Team: Clarinda Boys Cross Country 1956 State Champions (Induction: 9/6)

WINTER

Boys Basketball: BJ Windhorst (Induction: TBA)

Girls Basketball: Gail Hartigan (Induction: January 2017)

Wrestling: Tyler McGinnis (Induction: December 17th)

Team: 1996-97 Creston Boy's Basketball (Induction: July 2017)

SPRING