Cyclone women’s basketball team captain Jayme Olson isn’t relying on Hilton Magic to get her team to the NCAA tournament this year.

The 6-foot-1 forward is already a member of Iowa State’s elite 1,000-point club, finishing the 1996-97 season with 1,308 career points. Last season, she was the Cyclone’s leading scorer, averaging 17.1 points per game, and she led the ISU in both free- throw and three-point percentages, at .838 and .411.

Olson also tallied five double-doubles last year, including a career-high 33 points at Baylor, where she also grabbed 10 rebounds.

Coach Bill Fennelly said Olson has a competitive and enthusiastic spirit. “I feel very lucky to be able to coach Jayme,” he said.

The ISU women’s basketball team is confident, even in competition against nationally-ranked teams, Olson said. “We are expected to win every game, because we know we can do it,” she said.

Olson said her teammates and coaches have provided “immeasurable” support.

“You can’t accomplish anything without everyone heading in the same direction,” Olson said. “When we know where we want to go, we can help each other figure out what we need to do to get there.”

She said that kind of togetherness is part of being a winning team.

Olson said her parents have been instrumental to her athletic success. The closer she comes to the end of her college career, the more she realizes all they have done, she said.

She added that her parents have listened, supported and helped her throughout the years.

As a senior at Bettendorf High, Olson was captain of the Class 4A state championship team and was named the Gatorade and USA Today Iowa Player of the Year, among several other awards.

“Success keeps you in a certain mindset,” but collegiate competition is a completely different experience, Olson said.

She said everyone on the court is a good player in college, and you can never completely prepare yourself until you are out there. The competition has forced her to be mentally and physically strong, she said.

“My life has constantly been a roller coaster of ups and downs,” Olson said.

The biggest challenge Olson has faced is losing the coach (Theresa Becker) who recruited her. Olson said she chose to be a Cyclone because she wanted to be a part of its rebuilding process.

“It was a test for me,” Olson said. “I wanted to step up to the challenge.”

However, the parting of her first collegiate coach started for Olson a line of doubts. She said she questioned her love of the game and wondered whether she had made the wrong decision in coming to ISU.

The doubting didn’t last too long, and eventually, the coaching change was the best thing that could have happened, Olson said.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if Coach Fennelly hadn’t come to turn the team around,” she said. She said he brought in a completely different attitude, both in the team and in the fans.

Fennelly credits Olson for many of the changes.

“She not only wants to achieve the highest level possible for herself, she is driven to make the team as good as she can,” he said.

She always has been the “go-to player,” he said.

After the transition of coaches, Olson said she realized basketball was no longer about winning and losing, but about setting a tradition and style for ISU basketball and herself.

“Now I can take pride in Cyclone women’s basketball and appreciate how far it has come,” she said.

Since Fennelly’s arrival, Olson said she has rediscovered her love for the game.

Olson’s most memorable moment was qualifying for the NCAA tournament last season. “It was the greatest feeling to be there on the court, exceeding everyone’s expectations,” she said.

Olson said she has “no fears” the team will lose enthusiasm in the future, because the incoming players are excited about the program and what it has done. They will continue to fight as a team to be the best and won’t ever be satisfied, at least not until they win the NCAA championship, she said.

After this season, Olson plans to stay in Ames to prepare for graduate study in psychology. She said it will be interesting to see how life is different without athletic involvement, because she has never known a day without it since she began swimming competitively at age six.

“Athletics became a big part of my life when I was forced to look within myself,” Olson said.

Olson later became a member of three state championship swim teams and one state runner-up squad. She also was state champion in the 100-yard backstroke and led the 200-yard medley relay team to a state title in two straight years.

But, Olson said, after high school she was burned out from swimming and was having more fun playing basketball. “I was ready for a different stage in my life, and I wanted to see what I could do.”