Or gym keys, which provided Claflin's best-known resident with a place to develop as one of the top women's basketball players in the country.

Jackie Stiles was almost too young to remember her first trips to the gym with her father, Pat. He was the boys' varsity basketball coach at Claflin High, and she was his eager companion to practices, shooting at the baskets on the side courts as he coached.

It didn't take long for Jackie to fall in love with the game. When she was 7, her father lied about her age to get her into her first basketball camp. Camps, summer leagues and sports year-round became her addiction, other sports providing a means of staying in shape for the hoops season.

Where other young players with big dreams might have been stopped short, Stiles wasn't. Her dad, now the athletic director at Claflin High, had the keys.

"I've been lucky my whole life in Claflin," said Stiles, now a freshman guard and the leading scorer at Southwest Missouri State, the nation's No. 16 team. "I had access to the gym any time I wanted. I could have it at midnight. Whenever. I could stay in there all night if I wanted to because it was pretty much my gym -- I considered it my gym."

It was the gym where Stiles posted many of the 3,603 points, 829 rebounds, 523 assists and 326 steals she achieved as a four-time first-team all-stater. She is Kansas' leading scorer -- among girls and boys -- and ranks 10th nationally among female high school players.

It was the gym where a routine was born after she broke her wrist as a sophomore. To keep the rust off her shooting, she required that she make 1,000 shots a day. Although her schedule no longer allows for it, she sticks to the routine at least four days a week in the offseason.

And it was the gym from which such lore streamed that not a recruiter in the country didn't pine for her. She was named a member of the USA Junior National Team in 1996 and 1997 and grabbed honors as a Nike, WBCA, USA Today and Parade All-American.

The Stiles family was in a lurch regarding how to deal with big-time basketball programs. Claflin hadn't produced any athletic prodigies before, so advice was hard to come by. And sorely needed.

During the recruiting season last fall, everyone wanted to make a spiel to Stiles, and it seemed like everyone did. Schools from the Southeastern Conference wanted her. The Big East. The Big Ten. The Big 12 ...

In 20 days, 19 coaches visited her home in hopes of drafting her. They would attend her tennis or cross country meets or practices after school, then follow her home to visit until 10:30 p.m. or so.

"And it started over the next day," she said. "It was a zoo. It was really chaotic."

She chose five schools to visit -- SMSU, Connecticut, Colorado, Kansas State and Oklahoma -- and everybody in Claflin weighed in on the matter. Especially when she chose SMSU.

"A lot of people thought it was Division II, and they didn't have a real good understanding of what Southwest Missouri State basketball is all about," Stiles said.

But it made sense to her. She had learned so much there. She knew coach Cheryl Burnett could take the team to the Final Four. She loved the fans. And Springfield is 6 1/2 hours from Claflin -- driving distance for her family to attend games.

The 5-foot-8 freshman has started every game and is the Lady Bears' leading scorer, averaging 19.5 points per game. She is shooting 50 percent from the field, second to senior forward Lisa Davies (54 percent).

The team's many fans go berserk when their newest star, the one they are certain holds the keys to another Final Four, takes the floor.

"She certainly has come in with a lot of attention and very well-deserved attention," Burnett said. "She is capable of scoring in just so many ways. I got an e-mail ... and I think it says it best: 'You watch Jackie play and you don't realize until the end of the game she scored over 20 points.' She just makes it easy."

So easy that the Lady Bears are 12-1 overall and 4-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference with wins over ranked teams such as Illinois and Arkansas.

Last week, the team climbed to No. 13 in The Associated Press poll but fell this week to No. 16.

But no matter. Stiles, stinging from never having won a state championship in high school, is firm in her drive to help take the Lady Bears to their first Final Four since 1992.

"It's really important," she said. "It's definitely one of my goals and dreams. That's what keeps me working so hard and keeps me focused, because I really want to be successful on this team."