Messenger photo by Eric Pratt: Fort Dodge's LJ Maehl receives the game ball from an official on Tuesday night at Des Moines East after breaking the school’s all-time 5-on-5 girls basketball scoring record. Maehl’s Dodger teammates cheer her on.

Record-breaking performances are always the perfect time to reflect on the past and take inventory of the present.

The opportunity for both came on Tuesday night at Des Moines East, when LJ Maehl became Fort Dodge Senior High’s all-time 5-on-5 girls basketball scoring champion.

Maehl passed former Drake Bulldog Molly Nelson, a four-year Dodger regular herself who graduated from FDSH in 1998. Symmetrically, Maehl is the daughter of Ryan and Rachel (Thompson) Maehl — long-time friends and classmates of Nelson’s back in the day. Ryan was an all-state Dodger basketball player; Rachel was a standout volleyball teammate of Nelson’s when Fort Dodge reached the state tournament in the fall of 1997.

Both Maehl and Nelson proudly represent their school and community. They’re good people who care, which is ultimately more important than any statistic or accolade.

Tuesday’s historic moment was, fortunately and appropriately, filled with good people who care.

It didn’t take a math wizard to realize that Maehl would pass Nelson this week during the Dodgers’ road trip. I wondered what would happen if and when Maehl scored her 20th point of the game — and 1,173rd of her career — at East.

That opportunity arrived early in the third quarter. FDSH head coach Scott Messerly called a timeout after her breakthrough basket, and Dodger players poured onto the court to congratulate the affable Maehl.

Instead of quickly moving on, East High officials and fans cordially respected the accomplishment as well. The public address announcer even recognized Maehl’s achievement as she received the game ball from one of the referees at center court.

The score at the time was lopsided. The Scarlet girls are having a rough season, and there’s nothing in the rulebook that said East had to go along with any kind of ceremony.

Instead, they showed a true display of sportsmanship and handled the situation with class. It was the right thing to do, and the Scarlets thankfully saw a bigger picture.

Most kids don’t know this in 2026, but East is a proud school filled with a rich history of athletic prowess. East has been open for over 160 years, with a number of storied alums and teams that were the best of the best. As recently as 15 seasons ago, the Scarlet girls captured state championships in both basketball and softball.

The Iowa Alliance Conference is steeped in tradition. Waterloo East, for instance, used to be both a state and even a national powerhouse in a number of sports. Des Moines Hoover and Des Moines North have produced their fair share of talent as well.

Yet within the next 10 years, all three schools will either be closing or repurposed. And the IAC will have a much different look, if it continues to exist at all.

The way of the world now, I suppose, but there’s still something to be said for the schools and even communities much closer to what Fort Dodge has represented through the years than, by comparison, a suburban CIML powerhouse with unlimited power and resources at its disposal.

As such, if Maehl couldn’t break the record in her own gym, it seemed apropos that the moment came on the court of a Des Moines Public School District team. And that East had the awareness to treat the situation with reverence.

When history is made, a history lesson comes with it. IAC schools should be proud of the foundation they’ve built together — one spanning more common ground than greener grass elsewhere, with over 100 years of evidence supporting it.

Today, it’s worth saluting not just Maehl, her family, teammates, coaches and the town that helped shape her, but also a rival program that had the decency to make her feel welcome when it mattered most.

Eric Pratt is Sports Editor at The Messenger. Contact him via email at sports@messengernews.net, or on Twitter @ByEricPratt