When the Midwest Conference established women's sports on a conference basis in 1977, advocates predicted such action would give opportunities to outstanding women athletes whose participation had historically ended after high school. Such predictions were exactly correct.
One of the first women to emerge as an outstanding athlete and scholar was Cindy Wenndt Hutcheson, Class of 1983. After winning nine varsity letters at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, Cindy enrolled at Coe. There she became the college's first female 12-letter winner. She was a starter four years in volleyball, basketball and softball for the Kohawks. She was not only a letter winner. She was a star of each team.
In volleyball she won the Best Spiker Award two years and as a senior was named Best Offensive Player.
In basketball she was captain for three years, and in 1980-81 was the Most Valuable Player. On graduation she held the career record for scoring with 913 points and the career record in rebounding with 613.
In softball she played first base and had the team's best fielding percentage.
Her four year fielding was .970.
Cindy excelled also in the classroom. She graduated Cum Laude and was the first female recipient of the Bryant Athletic Scholar Award. She was elected to the Phi Eta Sigma honor society and the national Alpha Lambda Delta honor society. Twice she was nominated for Academic All-American and she was Homecoming Queen candidate twice.
She coached softball at Clarence-Lowden and Monticello and coached volleyball at Monticello and at Coe. She currently is on the coaching staff at Cedar Rapids Jefferson. She earned her Master of Arts degree in physical education from the University of lowa.
While other women have been elected to the Athletic Hall of Fame, Cindy Wenndt Hutcheson is the first from that student generation in which women's sports were inaugurated on a full conference basis. Thus, we especially welcome her into the Kohawk Athletic Hall of Fame as the leader of what will eventually become a lengthy roster of outstanding women scholar-athletes.
