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Collins-Maxwell basketball player breaking records, leading team in historic season

Reagan Franzen's record-breaking career almost never happened.

MAXWELL, Iowa — Inside Collins-Maxwell's gymnasium, there is a team in the midst of a school's best season. Leading that team is a player rewriting the school's history books.

"Really, anything we can ask her to do she can do it. It's pretty awesome," Collins-Maxwell girls basketball coach Justin Flaws said.

Reagan Franzen holds the school record for assists, and two weeks ago, she reached another milestone: 1,000 career points.

"My brother was here, my sister was here, my grandma was here and we had a full student section. It was just a crazy feeling," Franzen said of the night she reached 1,000 career points.

But Franzen's story of getting to that milestone almost ended after the first chapter.

"I actually was pretty convinced I was going to quit basketball after my freshman year," Franzen said.

That's right: the best statistical player in Collins-Maxwell history almost never played a game for the varsity team.

"Any time you think about not having a girl that scores 20 points [a game], it kind of makes you sick to your stomach," Flaws said.

The quiet, humble scorer who had not made a varsity shot yet, needed a reason to come play. Coach Flaws talked her into coming out and Franzen found her reason.

"I just had never felt a love for basketball before until I had this team behind me," Franzen said.

Spend a few minutes talking to her and you hear that word a lot, you do not hear much about her. That is what her coach is for.

"Their generation probably catches a lot of flack for being lazy or whatever adults want to call them," Flaws said. "But she's an example of a person who wants to work hard."

That hard work wrote her story, now she and her teammates can write another chapter for the program. 

On Wednesday, the Spartans play Montezuma for a chance to play in the school's first 5-on-5 state tournament.

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