Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

A number of names may first come to mind before Julie Kibler-Karl's when one is asked to list IUP's top women’s basketball stars through the sports 28-year varsity history. But that's because she personifies the term "quiet leadership.''
 
What she did as a player, for coaches Carolyn Thompson and Lois Clark, while majoring in psychology with a specialization in school psychology, was to become the first IUP woman to chart more than 2000 combined points and rebounds in her career. Only three IUP players have done so since.
 
Kibler-Karl's 910 career rebounds and 9.6 per-game average are the all-time second highest totals at IUP, her 1211 points and 512 field goals rank 10th and sixth respectively, and her 13 points per game fifth. Her rebounds set a team record that stood until 1991; she was the second player to post 1000 points.
 
What makes Kibler-Karl's many career and season standings distinctive is that you will not find her name among any of IUP's 60 all-time best single-game point or rebound totals. Rather than detracting, this attests to her game-in-and-game-out consistency.
 
Kibler-Karl dedicated her millennium mark to her father. Earl, who passed away in her teenage years. She is accompanied today by her mother, Lucy, her sister Cindy, and her brother Jim, along with husband Philip, whom she married in 1993, and two sons. Adam, 4, and one-year-old Bryan.
 
In each of her four playing seasons, Kibler-Karl posted rebound numbers that are among the Indians best ever, led by her 262 and 10.7 game average as a junior, when IUP advanced to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference "Final Four.'' The average ranks third on IUP record lists, the total fourth.
 
The accomplishments should have come as no surprise, following scholastic success that started competitively in sixth grade and extended to Big 15 and league all-star honors in her junior and senior years at Central Dauphin High School.
 
Nominated for Academic All-American honors while at IUP, Kibler-Karl earned master 's and advanced specialist degrees in school psychology at the University of Maryland.
 
After serving Intermediate Units for Northampton and Lancaster counties, she is now working part-time for the Manheim Central school district, serving on task forces for special education and gifted criteria, and
Contributing volunteer efforts to drug and alcohol aware ness and Habitat for Humanity.