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117 With all the balls dribbling up and down her family tree, it's no surprise Gustafson was introduced to the sport in first grade. In Gustafson's words, Port Wing is really pretty, but really little. at created a few challenges as she navigated through athletics. Because of low participation numbers, Gustafson played on a fih and sixth grade basketball team when she was in second grade. "Before I scored my first basket ever, I would run and stand there," Gustafson said. "One time I got a pass, threw it up there, and it went in. I jumped up with both hands; I made it. My dad said the next time and every time aer that, I would get so excited and run down and post up. at's where it all began." As an eighth-grader, again because of lack of numbers, Gustafson not only joined, but started, for the boys' basketball team. "I was told I was being too rough a couple times from the other team's coaches," Gustafson said. "It was during a game against a school with some rough guys and I was battling back with them. ere was a timeout and their coach came up to my coach and told him I was being too rough on them." During her high school career, there was an unjustified stigma that came with playing at the smallest Division 5 level. Gustafson once scored 64 points in a game and the three-time first- team all-state selection finished her career with a state-record 3,229 points. She added 1,724 rebounds and 628 blocked shots. In her final high school game, Gustafson scored 30 points with 18 rebounds and seven blocked shots. "People were underestimating me because I was in the Division 5 level and they thought anybody can score a bunch of points at the Division 5 level," Gustafson said. But Iowa coaches knew talent when they saw it. ey watched Gustafson play several times on the AAU circuit with Team Wisconsin. Gustafson came to Iowa's summer camp. "I remember getting (Iowa's) letter in the mail my sophomore year of high school and I was excited to hear from a Big Ten school," Gustafson said.