Caitlin Clark put the WNBA on a third-grade dream board, then went and got there
Asked in third grade to draw her hopes for the future, Caitlin Clark filled 12 clouds, including a college basketball scholarship and a place in the WNBA. She had started at five in boys' leagues, since her father could find no girls' league for her age. She became college basketball's all-time leading scorer and the WNBA's top pick.
Sport ran through the family in Des Moines. Her father played basketball and baseball at Simpson College, her older brother played football for Iowa State, and her maternal grandfather coached football at Dowling Catholic, the high school she later attended. As a small child she tried softball, volleyball, soccer, tennis and golf before settling on basketball. From the age of 13 she played in girls' leagues several years above her age, and her idol was Maya Moore of the nearby Minnesota Lynx, whose games she watched with her father.
Colleges noticed early; Missouri State sent a letter of interest before she reached seventh grade. At Dowling she once scored 60 points in a game in February 2019, one short of the Iowa girls' record, and hit 13 three-pointers, a state best. She also played varsity soccer for two years, scoring 23 goals as a freshman. She chose the University of Iowa in 2019 over Iowa State and Notre Dame, attracted by its fast offence and coach Lisa Bluder's record with point guards.
At Iowa she led the country in scoring as a freshman and as a sophomore topped Division I in both scoring and assists in one season, something no women's player had managed before. Twice national player of the year, she took Iowa to its first national championship game and finished as the leading scorer in Division I history. Her long-range shooting drew so many new fans that the surge was nicknamed the Caitlin Clark effect.
The Indiana Fever drafted her first overall in 2024. She was Rookie of the Year, set league assist records and broke the rookie scoring mark, and in 2026 scored 45 points, a franchise record.
Source: Caitlin Clark
