The Athletic will provide live coverage of Iowa vs. South Carolina in the Women’s Final Four.
In the hours and days after Iowa bagged its ticket to this week’s Final Four, Ella McVey opened up on her various social media apps.
Her high school teammate and good friend Caitlin Clark was everywhere.
“The first question everyone always asks me is, ‘Wow, I can’t believe she’s hitting all those punches.’ Or, ‘I can’t believe she strayed from the logo,'” McVey said of March Madness’s most exciting basketball star. “And I just sit back, you know what? I’ve seen her do that… a million times.”
Clark has taken basketball by storm this season, which included losing 41 points to Louisville in a historic performance in last week’s Elite Eight and winning the Naismith Player of the Year award on Wednesday. She’s the most exciting singles player left in the tournament – and she’s changing the way the game is viewed.
But for those who know Clark well, no one is surprised at her exploits. As her legacy grows through the NCAA tournament, so do the stories of her amazing days growing up in West Des Moines. Ahead of No. 2 Iowa’s much-anticipated showdown against No. 1 South Carolina in Dallas’ Final Four on Friday night, The Athletic spoke to about a dozen people who know Clark best — those who have had the privilege of working with her and the misfortune to try to defend them.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” McVey said. “If you guard her, I’m sorry.”
The one woman show
Clark’s 41-point triple-double against Louisville in the Elite Eight last week marked the first time anyone had accomplished such a feat in a men’s or women’s NCAA tournament.
But it was far from the first time Clark left an opposing defense with no answers.
As a junior at Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines, Iowa, she lost 60 points in a 90-78 win at Mason City High School. She set a state record of 13 3-pointers, many of which were deep backsteps with one hand in front of her face. After the first quarter she had 24 points.
“It’s okay. I’ve come to terms with it,” said Mason City coach Curt Klaahsen, laughing. “It’s hard to believe but we felt like we played a pretty good defense against them. She just has Made things from anywhere and from every angle.”
Klaahsen’s side played one of their best offensive games with 78 points — which under other circumstances would have been more than enough to win a high school basketball game. Defensively, he threw Clark different looks on whether that meant putting up a junk defense with a player nearby or sometimes putting two players on them.
“We told our kids to go for her and she shoots from four or five feet from beyond the arc. That’s outrageous,” said Klaahsen. “That doesn’t happen in high school.”
Meanwhile, Clark’s teammates were in awe.
“The first quarter just went by and I thought, yeah, we’re playing pretty well. Caitlin has many points. This is going well,” said high school and grassroots teammate Grace Gaber, alongside Clark Dowling’s 3-pointer.
“And I think in the second quarter we realized that she was hot.”
Despite this, Mason City went up against Clark and was led by guard Megan Meyer, who scored 27 points and played with Clark in Iowa for a season before joining Drake. Mason City, a strong team, reached the state tournament that year and lost in the semifinals.
Klaahsen has coached girls’ basketball for 35 years and is in the state’s IGCA Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. He joked that he felt a lot better the following year when his team held Clark to 27 points. She’s the best player he’s ever faced.
“I’m in the Girls Coach Hall of Fame and my claim to fame? I had a girl score of 60 (on me),” he said, laughing. “When she hits 40, I can tell people, ‘Oh, Louisville only kept her at 40, so maybe what we did wasn’t that bad.'”
The silencer
Doubt Caitlin Clark at your own peril.
It wasn’t uncommon for fans of opposing teams to harass Clark, as was the case during her senior year when Dowling was playing at Southeast Polk. Earlier this month, a clip from that night resurfaced on social media showing the student section of Southeast Polk singing “OVER-RATED” to the Maroons star.
Dowling Catholic eventually lost 80-71. But not before Clark casually dropped 42 points against the backdrop of the Höhne.
“She liked that. I kind of wanted to say to the opposing crowds, ‘Shhh. You’re actually encouraging them by doing that,” said Dowling’s Catholic trainer Kristin Meyer. “The bigger the crowd, the louder the crowd — she loves it.”
Eventually, the opponents learned their lessons.
“These things stopped because they knew she could support it,” said Dowling director Matt Meendering. “One thing about Caitlin that everyone found out is that you don’t give her anything else to cheer her on.”
The scout team’s nightmare
It wasn’t just one game day that Clark was up to the task. When not setting fire to opposing defenders on Dowling’s schedule, she made a habit of roasting Dowling’s all-male scout team in practice.
“I remember very well that I had to protect her,” said Andrew Lentsch, a second-grader on the Iowa football team and a year behind Clark at Dowling Catholic. “It wasn’t much fun because it was just practice, you never got a break because you’re always worried that she’ll either make a game or even embarrass herself a few times for her. I remember one of the first plays of the first drills, she hit me a 3 straight in the face from deep.”
Lentsch only played a year as a freshman on the scout team before joining the varsity team as a sophomore and being officially relieved of his Clark duties. But the legacy of Clark’s scout team lived on. McVey said several of her good friends were on the scout team and that when the scout team defenders all hung out together over the weekend, they still talked about Clark from the week before — and how they couldn’t stop her.
So does Lentsch have any advice on defending South Carolina?
“Oh my goodness,” he said. “Pray.”
The soccerplayer
Russ Trimble is the mayor of Clark’s hometown of West Des Moines and plans to honor her — maybe a key to the city? – after the end of the season in Iowa. Between Clark and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, West Des Moines is no stranger to producing elite athletes.
But for Trimble, his connection to Clark goes beyond basketball. His son Jaxon played minor league football with Clark when they were both children.
“Caitlin, then called Catie, played on an all-boys soccer team in West Des Moines, and that’s when I first met her. And I remember watching them play. She was everywhere, basically yelling at the guys, telling them where to go and what to do. Coaching in the field,” said Trimble. “She was probably the most intense player in that field. And I said to my wife, ‘Who is this little girl?’ And that was Caitlin Clark.”
Trimble said if I remember correctly Clark could have been a forward on that football team. Her athletic ability jumped out immediately, but so did her competitiveness. Years later, Jaxon, who attended Dowling Catholic with Clark, came home from school one day and told his father about Clark, the basketball player.
“He said, ‘Dad, Caitin Clark is one of the best high school players in the nation.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God. You’re talking about that Catie who was on your soccer team?” I believe so,” Trimble said.
“We’re really proud to be mayors of this city. She is doing a great job representing not just West Des Moines but the entire state of Iowa and we couldn’t be prouder of her.”
Thought Clark’s 41-point tournament game was anything? She lost 60 points in high school. (Courtesy of Earl Hulst)
The risk taker
Meyer recalls the first time she saw Clark throw one of her now-famous behind-the-back passes. Clark had just finished eighth grade and was on his way to high school when Meyer took Dowling’s Catholic team to a team camp at Creighton University.
During a five-on-five game — including the referee and the scoreboard — Clark threw a behind-the-back pass. Dowling met.
“It’s a bit risky,” Meyer said to Clark.
So she made up a rule.
Each time Clark successfully threw a behind-the-back pass, she would earn the right to attempt another. But if she turned the ball over, she would lose her privileges. Meyer called it the “one plus rule”.
“It went through (all of) high school,” Meyer said.
Clark never turned the ball over once on her behind-the-back passes, and instead consistently earned another pass. Four years later, Clark finished her high school career with 10 to 15 successful behind-the-back passes.
“I told her that the summer before her freshman year, assuming that maybe by the end of the summer we wouldn’t be throwing behind-the-back passes,” Meyer said. “Then she’s earned the right to throw it. She accepted that challenge and just ran with it.”
The Philanthropist
When legislation was passed in the summer of 2021 that allowed athletes to capitalize on their name, image and likeness for the first time, John Boller, the executive director of the Coralville Community Food Pantry in nearby Coralville, knew exactly who to call had to help with the pantry trying to feed the hungry.
“I sort of reviewed our options and figured Iowa is a good football program, but personally I’ve been a big fan of Iowa women’s basketball for a long time, so it was a no-brainer,” he said. “It was clear that (Clark) was the biggest name in any type of sport in Iowa at the time. And today she’s one of the biggest names in all of basketball, which is really, really exciting.”
Boller reached Clark through her uncle, who helped her with her business opportunities. The Pantry had full intentions of paying Clark to help with fundraising and community outreach. But Clark insisted she wanted to help for free, and last year it was her idea to host an in-person fundraiser. Anyone who brought a personal hygiene item – including menstrual products, shampoo or soap – was allowed to meet Clark and take a picture with her. Among those who showed up with items were some of the people who use the pantry as a service.
“I won’t lie. Things have been really tough here for the past three years. People are really, really struggling to have access to one of the most basic human rights, which is food,” Boller said. “The families who are turning to us for support are going through really tough times right now. So, to have a break where we can connect with this incredible person, who happens to be one of the most incredible basketball players we’ll ever see in our lives — to put her foot in the building and cross her arms with to do something good for us in this way – it was just something very special.”
Clark teamed up with the pantry for a month during March Madness last year to raise $22,000 in honor of her No. 22 jersey. In one month, the pantry raised $23,000. This year, the pantry raised $16,000 in the first week of the campaign alone.
“People refer to Caitlin as the cheat code in basketball,” Boller said. “And for me, it’s also proven to be cheat code in philanthropy.”
The trash talker
Of course, Clark knows how to talk a little trash. The best in the game always do.
“Just a little bit. She doesn’t do that very often,” said high school teammate Josie Filer, who just finished her senior year as a graduate transfer at Illinois Chicago. “But if you get her going, she’ll sure bark back.” “
At one point late in that now-famous Mason City game, Klaahsen recalls speaking to an officer about a specific call — okay, well, maybe arguing with him. Clark stood nearby and overheard the exchange.
“She said to me, ‘Sit down and be quiet, Coach,'” Klaahsen recalled. “But if you look back, it’s the competitor she was. I don’t think she was rude.”
But Clark’s words didn’t just get into the heads of opponents. Most of the time she meticulously unraveled them with her playing style.
“She once moved someone to tears on the court just by what she did, not even by what she said,” McVey said, mentioning step-back 3s and ankle-busting crossovers. “It was just one of those things where I was like, ‘I understand’ because I was usually the one guarding her in practice most of the time.”
The Karaoke Performer
Those who know Clark best say she’s not always just basketball. She also has a goofy side, which came to the fore one Saturday afternoon during her high school career when Dowling Catholic was having a makeup game due to a snow storm. The Maroons had a pre-game shootout and tour of the scouting report.
Then the team noticed that the microphones the school used for games were already set up, so the Maroons had an impromptu karaoke session with all the lights off. Clark sang “When I Pray for You,” the team’s anthem that year, by Dan + Shay. How were their whistles?
“You know, not as great as a basketball player as she is,” Gaber said.
“She should stick with basketball,” added McVey, who is now a Michigan shortstop. “The mic is a little unforgiving, especially in our gym. … But I will give her credit. She will try.”
The game changer
Dowling Catholic will host “Caitlin Clark Day” on Friday, and athletic director Tom Wilson expects the school to be packed with students in Iowa gear.
“Obviously she plays women’s basketball, but I think she’ll excel at the boys’ game as well. I think they just respect their skills and their passion for their place,” Wilson said. “She makes an impression that I think goes beyond the Final Four.”
In fact, Clark has the attention of basketball fans at every level and is changing the way this NCAA women’s tournament is viewed. Last week’s Iowa-Louisville Elite Eight matchup drew 2.5 million viewers on ESPN, more than any NBA regular-season game on the network this season.
“She’s the best basketball player in the country,” McVey said.
Just this week, Boller — whose nephew skipped school to help out in the pantry the day Clark came through last year — was playing basketball in the driveway with the same nephew. His nephew is in seventh grade.
“Every time he was shooting, he was like, ‘Caitlin Clark for 3! Monika Czinano with the post move!’” said Boller. “It’s just so great to see that it’s now being integrated into the language of young people.
“I think she’s the best thing that’s happened to the state of Iowa in a long time.”
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photo by Caitlin Clark: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)