Four-year old Caitlin Clark was frustrated. It was a cloudy morning in the Fall of 2006, with overnight drizzle making her family home’s semi-circle driveway carpeted in fallen, auburn leaves especially slippery. She looked on impatiently as her father, Brent, carefully and encouragingly attempted to teach her six year old brother how to ride his new Redline Raid BMX bike. Her brother kept falling down and was becoming increasingly discouraged and angry as the minutes and broken falls ticked by. There were tears, folded-arms-tight-against-chest, protestations and all the rest. Caitlin by this time had seen enough and, determined, forced a nearby bicycle on its side upright in the only way a four year old could. By this time, she had captured the attention of Brent and her teary-eyed brother. Catlin hopped on, placed her left foot on the pedal and gently pushed off with her right leg, cautiously heeding balance. Just as her father was instructing her brother. Caitlin glided out from under the cantilevered garage door and past her brother, now itching for another try. She expertly navigated the slippery carpet of leaves as Brent beamed brightly, barely containing incredulous laughter. Such is the story — now legend — of how Caitlin Clark so fiercely declared herself. Without apology or excuse, Catlin’s studied determination would go on to famously foment a cultural movement just 18 years later. Please meet Caitlin Clark, the 22-year old University of Iowa point guard sensation who is lighting up scoreboards, billboards and opposing teams alike with the calm fury of a pioneer intolerant of convention.

Three years later in 2009, Caitlin was enjoying the second grade and all the challenges it presented at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in West Des Moines. At least, up to a point. Here, she was introduced to a learning technique the school termed Rocket Math. With Rocket Math, students raced against one another to complete a sheet of increasingly difficult mathematic problems as quickly as possible, with 100% accuracy. Caitlin was gifted at Rocket Math and uniquely attuned to the approach, complexity and competitive pressure that came with it. But with every iteration, she’d routinely land in second place, unhappy and flustered. So she did what any seven year old would do: she toiled at home with flash cards she made herself from paper plates, prompt and answer scribbled in Sharpie front and back. She enlisted her parents to sharpen and heighten her read-and-response skills, all in an attempt to finish first in Rocket Math at school. Ever eager and fixated on her quest, her teacher at one point reached out to Caitlin’s parents to express her concern with Caitlin’s supposed obsession with winning. Further, the teacher suggested moderating their efforts that were being perceived as overdone and singular-focused. Caitlin and her parents resisted the advice and Caitlin soon thereafter claimed her Rocket Match crown.

Growing up, Caitlin enjoyed a family that included two brothers within years of her and an extended family of 20 cousins. The (extended) family was an athletic one. Caitlin’s father Brent was a former basketball and baseball athlete, her grandfather a football coach at Dowling Catholic. By happenchance, her siblings and cousins in her age range were all boys. So if she wanted to play, she was forced to play what the boys played. Caitlin was frequently picked on, bullied and bloodied. But she was never intimidated. She rose up and learned to level-set, observe, strategize and succeed over time. This physical athleticism paired with her existing competitive relentlessness would go on to set the template for future greatness. One thing that Caitlin, her father and her brothers could all agree on was two-on-two basketball. The foursome could be found routinely at the local park practicing skill shots or relishing in pick-up games with neighborhood friends. The one thing that Brent could see with Caitlin, among many unreal attributes, was her distinctive and pinpoint accurate longshot.

Brent knew instinctively that she had to play competitively. Famously, Brent took Catlin down to the SportsPlex West in nearby Waukee and where he signed up Caitlin for the boys’ league because the equivalent girls’ league didn’t exist. Caitlin, a kindergartner at that point, was used to the laughter and sneers as her coach introduced her to the team. Growing up with two brothers and a phalanx of male cousins made her impervious to the ridicule. The disparagement didn’t last long. Because Caitlin quickly demonstrated why she was chosen; a young, preternatural longshooting athlete with an intense desire to win. Her male opponents in the league didn’t know what to make of her, much less how to react defensively. Her dominance was such that opposing teams routinely double-teamed her with the goal of simply getting the ball out of her hands. To her teammates, the strategy was simple: get her the ball. She was emerging as a faultless shooter, from ridiculous distances that everyone else on the court had only witnessed in video games. She was also the best dribbler on the team as well as the fastest making for effortless layups. If Caitlin had any faults at this point, it was her intensity and tendency to dissolve into tears whenever the team lost. Further, she wasn’t a fan of passing. So said one of her teammates so aptly: What’s the point? Caitlin’s pure dominance of the all-boys league didn’t come without pushback. During one game where Catilin’s team was hammering their opponents, a mother from the opposing team marched to the administrative offices to complain that the phenom was crushing the boys — plural — self-esteem to be shown up by a girl. Comical, apropos, ironic and thought-provoking all at once. Administrators recoiled that Caitlin is allowed to play because she’s earned it. Recall that this episode took place incredibly between kindergarten and the third grade AND that she was routinely up against boys a year or two older than her.

So it’s abundantly clear that Caitlin from an early age always approached challenge in an unorthodox manner. Whether absorbing how to ride a bike, obsessing over Math Rocket paper plates or resisting outdated modes of thought, Caitlin is blazing a path that has onlookers of all stripes flattened and giddy with glee. As she leads her Hawkeyes into the Final Four, Caitlin at age 22 is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and is considered one of the best players in women’s college basketball history. She’s reached 1000 career points faster than any women’s player in Big Ten history. In the past year alone, she’s received seven awards including 2023 AP Player of the Year, the John Wooden Award, the Wade Trophy and USBWA National Player of the Year among many others. Her imprint on the sport (and sports culture) is such that she’s being compared to Steph Curry with the transformative weight she brings basketball. Her ascendancy is leading to record ratings for NCAA games driving women’s basketball to near-parity with its men’s counterpart this March Madness cycle. Caitlin is not the first great female shooter in the game, but her dimensionality of where and how far she can shoot coupled with her passing skills is where her rubber meets the road. Her relatability, fearlessness and ambition dovetail together to inspire a generation of young girls to demand more and better, of themselves and their peers. While Caitlin has already declared for the WNBA, she can point to an overcast morning 22 years ago that perfectly set the stage for destiny.

Turning now to the side-show to Caitlin’s dominance of March Madness thus far, the men’s bracket is turning into a relatively sleepy affair. The Final Four is now set and there’s pitifully little to write home about. In the East, UConn easily snuffed out the San Diego State Aztecs and Illinois just after that team put an early end to 11-seed Duquesne Cinderella shoe fittings. In the Midwest, the top two seeds in Purdue and the Volunteers went at it only to see Tennessee promptly put into turnaround. Only in the West and South is there some hint of sizzle and spice. In the former, Alabama outrageously took down the top-seeded Tar Heels just as 6-seed Clemson skewered early would-be favorites in Arizona, only to succumb to a 7 point deficit and death themselves. In the latter, who among us isn’t wagering for 11-seed NC State after the Wolfpack’s drubbing of Duke 76–64 yesterday. So we have UConn-Alabama and NC State-Purdue set this upcoming Saturday evening. Just a day before Caitlin Clark’s her Hawkeye’s likely coronation in the NCAAW Championship game on Sunday.