Nov. 16, 1999

By Joe Walljasper

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Growing up in the small town of Washington, Ind., a young girl's sports options were limited -- unless you happened to be Julie Helm.

Keeping Julie Helm away from sports has always been a losing battle.

"Long before females were competitive enough for her, she competed with boys," said Helm's father, John. "She played both boys Little League baseball as a catcher -- and was very good, like an all-star delegate -- and in the boys basketball program. She was always the leading scorer. She played linebacker in the boys YMCA football program and was extremely competitive."

"We were laughing just the other day about how dirty the opposition thought that this one particular player was that had hurt or broke this other player's arm. They wanted that player disqualified. Then she took her helmet off and had this long hair that hung down. They sang a little bit different tune then."

Teammates, opponents, significant others and unsuspecting motorists have since learned that it's best not to interfere with Helm's agenda.

"I could be driving down the road and it's like, 'Don't pass me,' " said Helm, a 5-foot-11 guard who enters her senior season as the sixth-leading scorer in school history. "It's stupid little things like that. My boyfriend and I -- ex-boyfriend -- used to get into serious fights because we couldn't just go bowling for fun. I had to win."

She is without a doubt a competitor. But lest you think she is a ruthless competitor, consider this:

Helm often writes her parents just to let them know how much she appreciates the sacrifices they've made for her. Last year, she earned the Nation's Bank Community Champion award for her charitable work. And just a few weeks before her hectic senior season tips off, she volunteered in the Big Sister program to serve as mentor to an area girl.

"I love helping little kids and working with the Special Olympics," Helm said. "There's a special feeling you get inside when you see a little kid's eyes light up. I remember when I was little and saw my first college game. They're just in awe of you. You sit back and you really appreciate all the things that God has given me, all these abilities. I can be a role model for these younger kids."

Julie was the youngest of John and Barbara Helm's four children and was a daddy's girl and tomboy from the start. She liked to fish and play sports with her dad, a former baseball and basketball player at Georgia Southern, and according to John was the only one of the children who was willing to sit still long enough to take coaching advice from him.

As she got older he drove her all over the country to basketball camps, AAU tournaments and the like. She played every sport offered at Washington High School -- cross country, golf, softball, track -- but this being Indiana, basketball was the favorite.

Crowds of 3,500 would regularly pack the gym. When the Lady Hatchets went to the state tournament in Helm's senior year, Washington, population 12,000, became a ghost town.

"You know the movie Hoosiers?" she said. "Well, when we went to state, every surrounding town closed down to go support us."

It still bugs Helm that Washington blew a 19-point lead and lost to much larger Carmel High School in the semifinals of what was then a one-classification tournament. When asked if the Lady Hatchets ran the picket-fence play like in the movie, she replied: "We got caught watching the paint dry."

Helm averaged 28 points as a senior in 1995 and is still the fifth-leading scorer in Indiana girls basketball history with 2,232 points. She was recruited by virtually every college program except Stanford and Tennessee. Helm surprised all of them when she chose Missouri, which hasn't finished in the top half of its conference since 1990.

Helm liked former coach Joann Rutherford's personality and agreed to an official visit. She toured Mizzou after making a visit to Southern Cal, where she met Cheryl Miller. As awe-inspiring as that meeting was, she thought Los Angeles was too much for a small-town girl. Columbia seemed just right.

"The community and players really won me over," she said. "I was at the point where the recruiting process was so overwhelming, I just wanted to get it over with. It was like, this is it, this is the one, I'm taking it, let's go."

Her college career was delayed when she suffered a torn ACL in an Indiana high school all-star game. She played in three games of the 1995-96 season before sitting out the rest and redshirting. For someone who hates sitting on the bench, it was torture. But it allowed her knee time to heal.

She hasn't spent much time on the bench since. Helm averaged 17.2 points and earned Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors in '97. She became the first MU sophomore to eclipse 1,000 points and averaged 19.9 on her way to third-team all-conference honors. She was a third-team All-Big 12 pick again last year after averaging 17.8 points.

And it should be noted that she produced these totals despite being the object of gimmick defenses from many opponents.

"She lights it up," said MU coach Cindy Stein, who replaced Rutherford last year. "She can put the ball in the bucket. She's got some very good moves. She just plays hard. She never stops playing hard, so she wears the opponent down. She's improved her ball-handling. She crashes the boards hard. She's improved her quickness and become a better defensive player."

"She's constantly working on her weaknesses to make her a better all-around player. A lot of kids just rely on a certain strength to carry them through."

Her habits rubbed off on others.

"I think she'd be the first to admit she may not jump as high or run as fast as some of the other players, but she makes up for it with her work ethic," said senior forward Amy Monsees, who shares an apartment with Helm and junior forward Tracy Franklin. "She's always in the gym shooting. She's always working out, running, lifting weights."

"I really don't think I knew what it took to play at this level when I first got here. In between my sophomore and junior year, I worked out with her a lot over the summer. I really saw how much time she put into it. I saw the results my junior year (when her scoring average doubled to 12.7). I was a lot better than I'd done previously."

As productive as Helm has been, she hasn't been able to carry the Tigers to a winning season -- MU is a combined 34-51 the last three years -- and that bothers her. She admittedly is not a good loser.

"If you ask Coach Stein, that's one of my downfalls -- the negative aspect I bring out of a loss toward myself," Helm said. "I tend to blame the loss on me."

"If you think about it, the minutes I'm playing, there's a lot of things out there I could have done differently to change the outcome of the game. People say that's stupid and you can't look at it that way, but someone's got to take blame for a loss. Someone's got to take blame, and then work to change whatever they did."

Helm is approaching this season as a last chance, and one that she's fortunate to have.

Last May, John Helm was flying the family to Florida in his twin-engine plane. One of the engines caught fire. With warning buzzers going off, John knew he needed to get the plane down -- and quick. He cut the gas line to the burning engine and sent the plane into a sharp descent. He also radioed an emergency warning to authorities.

"I literally thought I was going to die with my family for a good 30 seconds," Julie said. "When the plane was falling, I really thought I was going to die, and you couldn't get the words out to tell everyone you loved them. You're trying, but you just couldn't do it. I remember saying a prayer, and then I turned around and saw my dad, who was calm. 'No problem. Nothing's wrong.' Then I realized we were going to be fine because I saw how calm he was. I was like, 'This is my dad. We're OK.' "

With Army choppers in the air looking for his plane, John found an airport in Geneva, Ala., and landed it flawlessly. The family was swarmed by rescue workers in fire suits, but no one was harmed. In fact, they rented a car and proceeded to Florida.

If at first you don't succeed...

Helm applies the same logic to her basketball career. She enters this season with a chance at becoming Missouri's all-time leading scorer. She entered the season with 1,563 points and needed 564 to pass Joni Davis. The reason Helm thinks that record is out of reach is the same reason she's so excited about MU's chances this year. Missouri will have more talent surrounding her than years past.

The addition of eight newcomers, including junior college All-Americans Amanda Lassiter and Marlena Williams, probably means there will be fewer shots to go around but more victories. Helm will gladly accept trade.

"The things that stick out to me are the games that I didn't step up or we lost," she said. "Last year at the Big 12 Tournament, the game against Baylor. Great game. Our team was clicking, clicking. The next game (a season-ending loss to Iowa State), no show by Julie Helm. Box-and-one. I let my team down. That's the thing that sticks out to me. Then I had to live with that the whole summer. Now it's redemption time."