WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Caitlin Clark is a McDonald’s All-American. No one can take that away from her.
"That’s just like a dream you have and then seeing your name on the roster they had everything planned we knew what we were going to do and knowing a lot of the girls and being able to hang out with them one more time before we leave for college was going to be fun."
But playing with 20 of the best high school seniors in the country never happened.
“It was supposed to be April 1, but I was supposed to fly on March 28 so I missed out on like a whole week of stuff.”
For Clark, she says it hurts, but at the same time it could be worse.
“If you just look at it in the bigger picture some seniors don’t get their senior season so it could be a lot worse but it definitely stinks but just having the honor of having our name on the roster is a really big deal.”
The next roster she’ll be on is University of Iowa woman's basketball. The plan is still to get out to Iowa City in mid-June. Clark hopes that stays on track.
“I feel like I’m just ready to get out to Iowa City start workouts and get the hang of everything just because right now I’m stuck inside and it’s just not being able to do much but I feel like I’m definitely ready for college and taking that next step.”
The Hawkeyes sent her some workouts to do, and she’s getting shots up in her driveway. It’s even become a family affair from working out with her dad to hooping against her brothers.
“My younger brother has been out there quite a bit. I drag him out there sometimes and make him rebound. My older brother just comes out and tries to annoy me more than anything. Tries to play defense on me. Even my mom does that too so it’s been different but it’s good.”
It’s all in preparation for her first season with the Hawkeyes.
“I think I’m going to take a bigger role in the team so that’ll be big for me just being able to play with them and learn their game and obviously improve my game my shooting dribbling just like the basics for sure.”
And soon enough put on that black and gold uniform
“I’m so excited. It’s going to be awesome. Carver is just a great place to play. They’ve got a lot of fans. That’s what you want you want to play in front of a lot of fans. The Big ten is a really good conference so I’m super excited.”