… isn’t torture

Is a key foundation of basketball. Anyone who has played a lot of hoop loves 3 on 3. It incorporates a guard, forward and a center. Many times basketball divides the court with one side playing 3 on 3 and the other side 2 on 2. Three on three allows you to have a post player and people cutting off the post.

very boring - maybe Caitlin heard the stories growing up.

ETA - Iowa girls played 6 on 6 which was a game where there were basically 2 games of 3 on 3 going on at once. A team had 6 players 3 forwards in one court that only played offense and 3 guards in. the other half of the court. The guards only played defense.

...(I played golf with her & her husband) played that style of basketball when she was a kid.
She said she enjoyed it at the time, but later realized she only learned how to play half the game. She was always in defense. Never shot, never dribbled, never passed the ball, except across the half court line.
Her granddaughter was starting to play & she realized that she couldn't really help her. It frustrated her, because the granddaughter knew grandma played basketball but couldn't help.

state offering high school basketball for girls. The other was Oklahoma.

Iowa offered a pretty full range of sports for girls long before anyone else. I was proud of my state for that, even though the basketball was strange.

Added to that strangeness was that girls bball was only played in small cities and rural towns. Mostly towns below 10,000 as I recall - could have been smaller.

In Illinois, the HS association held the first state tournament for girls in 1976. That said, the schools in the town where I lived didn't all have teams until probably 2 years later. (There were 5 high schools)
If I recall correctly, this friend grew up near Ames. But, I don't think actually IN Anes. She grew up on a farm. So, she may have been a small town as you desribe.

Early access to training, facilities and equipment.

Before T9, girls' sports were a mere afterthought.

but played in a summer league. What I remember most was the popular girls got to make the baskets and the rest of us were guards and never the twain shall meet.

She's having some time off. I'd say she deserves it.