It All Started Here: Caitlin Clark

Long before Caitlin Clark rose to international acclaim, the Des Moines native dominated basketball courts across Iowa.

Clark excelled in basketball at a young age but also tried volleyball, soccer, softball, tennis and golf. She often recalls playing sports with her brothers in their backyard growing up and, due to limited opportunities for girls, joined an all-boys team in elementary school.

Fast-forward to her time at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, and Clark made an immediate impact on her varsity basketball team.

As a freshman in 2016, she averaged 15.3 points, 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game, leading Dowling to a 19-5 record and earning Class 5A All-State third-team honors. She then boosted her scoring average to 27.1 points per game as a sophomore, helping Dowling to a 20-4 record while earning Central Iowa Metro League Player of the Year by the Des Moines Register and Class 5A All-State First Team honors by the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association.

In addition to her basketball success, Clark was an exceptional soccer player during her freshman and sophomore years. She started on the varsity squad both seasons, scoring 23 goals as a freshman to earn Class 3A All-Iowa honors. After her sophomore year, however, she chose to focus exclusively on basketball.

Clark made national headlines on the hardwood as a junior when she scored 60 points in a 90-78 win against Mason City High School – the second-highest single-game total in Iowa girls basketball history – on 13 made 3-pointers (a state record). She led the state of Iowa in scoring that season, averaging 32.6 points per game, and was named her state’s Gatorade Player of the Year while again earning first team all-state honors. During the Class 5A state tournament, Clark scored a single-game tournament record 42 points in a triple-overtime win over Waukee High School in the quarterfinals.

As a senior, Clark once again led the state in scoring, averaging 33.4 points, while also putting up eight rebounds, four assists and 2.7 steals per game. She repeated as Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior and collected numerous accolades, including All-Iowa Athlete of the Year and Iowa Miss Basketball. She was also selected for the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic, though both events were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clark finished her high school career with 2,547 career points, fourth in Iowa girls’ five-on-five basketball history, and 283 made 3-pointers (sixth all-time).

Following her stellar career at Dowling, Clark catapulted to superstardom at the University of Iowa, where she became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA basketball – men’s or women’s – with 3,951 career points. Clark’s elite 3-point shooting, playmaking abilities and fiery competitive drive captured the attention of fans worldwide, as women’s college basketball saw an unprecedented growth in viewership during her tenure at Iowa. The Hawkeyes went 109-30 with Clark on the team and advanced all the way to the national championship games in both 2023 and 2024.

Among her dozens of collegiate accolades, Clark was named AP Female Athlete of the Year in 2024 and won the John R. Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year honors in both her junior and senior seasons. Clark was also an eight-time AllAmerica selection, three-time Big Ten Player of the Year, and three-time Nancy Lieberman and Dawn Staley Award winner in college.

After getting selected first overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever, Clark has continued selling out arenas nationwide. She earned WNBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2024 when she also set a new league record for assists in a season with 337, and has made the All-Star team in each of her first two seasons.