The younger member of a sister act, Colleen Means Dempsey was a forward for the Villisca High School basketball team. In her junior year she helped lead Villisca to the Tall Corn Conference championship and then on to play in the Girls State Basketball Tournament. She holds the Villisca 3 on 3 scoring record of sixty five points in a single game. Colleen lettered in basketball and in softball for four years and in track for two years. She held the Conference track record in the Long Jump from 1969 until the early 1990s.
While in High School she also participated in Y-Teens, Drama Club, Lettermans Club, Student Council and was a National Merit Scholar Winner.
Colleen attended Northwest Missouri State University, graduating in 1973 with honors with a BS Degree in Education. While at Northwest Missouri she was instrumental in helping to organize the Women’s Sports Programs. Those were pre-Title IX years meaning that it was before sports scholarships were available for women in college.
While at Northwest Missouri State University Colleen played on the Women’s Basketball and Softball teams, and ran track all four years. In her junior year her basketball team won the State Tournament and they qualified for the first ever National Basketball Tournament. Years later that basketball team was ushered into the M-Club Athletic Hall of Fame at Northwest Missouri State University. She was named to the Women’s All School Basketball Team. She qualified in her Junior and Senior years for the National Track Meets in the Long Jump and as a 440 and 880 Relay Team Member.
After College she continued to champion girl’s and women’s sports, playing on and coaching travel teams in both softball and basketball until she was 48 years old. She relates that she also got to see two of her nieces play college softball on scholarships, which was a great thrill for her.
Colleen has worked for Pacific Gas and Electric for 26 years in Customer Field Services and hopes to retire in a couple of years. She lives 15 miles from Yosemite National Park and expects to “Hike the Sierras” in her retirement.
Colleen currently resides in Oakhurst, California