The energy that Hayden Kuhlmann brings with her whenever she competes is noteworthy and contagious. Everyone around her understands that she is always working her opponent coming down the floor off the dribble while looking to set up her team’s offense and to hit one of her open teammates with a nice assist in one way or another. Spirit Lake has been a team that has always been competitive since I’ve been around the last five seasons. They play the right way and that’s what you see when you evaluate Kuhlmann. She doesn’t force any crazy unneeded action and she seems to always make the smart play in whatever situation she is in so I’m expecting more of the same when she steps onto the collegiate floor with NAIA – Dordt in a couple of years.

We mentioned Hayden Kuhlmann Hayden Kuhlmann 5'6" | PG Spirit Lake | 2027 State IA previously as someone to watch at Spirit Lake this Winter as their leader with the ball in her possession. Kuhlmann, the 5’6 PG, is a natural when it comes to leading her team as she puts up eye-opening numbers in different positive statistical categories. She is a prospect that always seems to make the right play and she understands how the rhyme of the game works whenever she is competing live. In one of Spirit Lakes battles last week Kuhlmann finished with 12 assists to her fellow teammates. This number jumps out for a few reasons but mainly because that is a lot of assists within one contest. If you actually look back at Kuhlmann’s last couple of games, she is sitting right around the 11 APG range. Which is again, very noteworthy. She is finding her teammates at such a high rate right now, it might be at the best rate throughout the entire state. This is something to keep an eye on moving into the Playoffs. If Kuhlmann can keep up with the high assist numbers, watch out!

I am liking what I’ve seen out of Spirit Lake up until this point in the season. Hayden Kuhlmann Hayden Kuhlmann 5'6" | PG Spirit Lake | 2027 State IA has been flying all over the court, giving her maximum effort whenever she laces up her kicks. She is one of her team’s top scorers and top defenders that they have on roster. She is always showing up in the stat sheet and on video whenever you watch this group. Spirit Lake is a tough group. They have a lot of pieces, that are interchangeable and that’s going to fair well for them in a few weeks when they are playing for their Playoff lives.

It going to be a big season ahead of Algona High School and Hayden Kuhlmann Hayden Kuhlmann 5'6" | PG Spirit Lake | 2027 State IA . Kuhlmann came into this event as a Top 50 prospect out of the 2027 Class in Iowa and for good reason. Kuhlmann is primarily a PG with some natural instincts with the ball in her possession but she really showed how well she can shoot it at this event last week. It seemed like every time she was open on the outside, her team got her the ball for an easy look and she knocked it down. Doesn’t matter where from. The point is that Kuhlmann showed her worth and versatile in every game she competed in and that’s impressive to do with the type of talent that was in the gym for this one. Now hopefully she can just build onto that moving forward into the Winter season!

The Bulldogs of Algona recorded their 20th victory of the season with a win against Western Christian earlier this week. In this victory, the Bulldogs played a thorough game from the field, while limiting their turnovers for the most part. One of their standouts in almost every positive statical category was PG, Hayden Kuhlmann Hayden Kuhlmann 5'6" | PG Spirit Lake | 2027 State IA . Kuhlmann played a complete game, logging in 20 points (8-16), 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 7 steals. This wasn’t the only player for the Bulldogs to have a good showing though as the McLaughlin sisters did their thing as well but in reality, Kuhlmann really took over. She led the tempo of the game, she played both sides of the ball with a high rate of production, and she created for others. Three factors that helped her dominate in the grand scheme of things.