Caitlin Clark’s life history and family
American college basketball player Caitlin Clark was born on January 22, 2002, and she plays for the Big Ten Conference’s Iowa Hawkeyes. She is regarded as one of the best players in the history of women’s college basketball and is the all-time top scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball.
West Des Moines, Iowa, native Clark attended Dowling Catholic High School, where she was ranked fourth in her class by ESPN and honored as a McDonald’s All-American. She ranked NCAA Division I in scoring in her freshman year at Iowa and became an All-American.
Clark was an undisputed first-team All-American in her sophomore year and the only female player in Division I ever to lead the team in both points and assists in just one season. She led Iowa to its initial national championship game and won every major national player of the year award in her junior year. Clark set Big Ten single-season records for points and assists and once again topped Division I in assists.
She broke the conference record for assists as a senior and emerged as the Division I women’s career scoring leader. Clark played for the United States at the under-19 level and won three gold medals, including two in the 2021 FIBA Under-19 Women’s World Cup, where she was named the Most Valuable Player.
The “Caitlin Clark effect,” a phrase coined to describe the extraordinary national interest that women’s basketball has garnered, was ascribed to her actions during her time in college.
Adolescence:
Clark grew up in West Des Moines, having been born in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 22, 2002. When she was five years old, her father could not find a girls’ basketball league for her age group, so she began playing in boys’ leisure leagues. Before focusing on basketball, Clark also played softball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, and golf as an adolescent. She started playing in girls’ leagues at the age of 13, several years ahead of her age group.
Clark began playing basketball for the All Iowa Attack, an AAU club based in Ames, Iowa, in the sixth grade. She was a member of the team until she finished high school. The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player Ashley Joens was one of her AAU colleagues. She was coached by Attack’s Dickson Jensen. She drove with her father for three and a half hours to witness their games, motivated by Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx, the WNBA team closest to Clark’s hometown.
After Harrison Barnes entered the program, she developed an admiration for the All Iowa Attack alum and started cheering for the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Career at college:
Under head coach Kristin Meyer, Clark played varsity basketball for four years at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines.
She averaged 15.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 2.3 steals per game as a rookie. The Iowa Newspaper Association named her to the Class 5A All-State third team, while The Des Moines Register named her an honorable mention on the All-Iowa squad.
After leading her team to a 19–5 record in the Class 5A state tournament, Clark’s team lost to Valley High School, the eventual winners, in the opening round. She ranked second in the state in scoring during her sophomore season, averaging 27.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2.3 steals per game.
The Des Moines Register awarded Clark the Central Iowa Metro League Player of the Year, and the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association (IPSWA) named him first-team Class 5A All-State. She contributed to Dowling’s 20-4 record and trip to the Class 5A state quarterfinals. She scored 23 points in the All Iowa Attack’s 64-61 victory over the Cal Storm in the championship game to lead the team to the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League title after the season.
Against Mason City High School on February 4, 2019, in her junior year, Clark scored 60 points in a 90-78 victory. Her 60 points was the second-highest point total in Iowa girls’ basketball history in a single game; Abby Roe’s 1996 total was the highest. With 13 three-pointers, she also set the state record for a single game.
In a 75-70 triple-overtime victory over Wisconsin High School in the quarterfinals on February 25, Clark broke the record for the most points scored in a single game of the Class 5A state tournament with 42 points. She contributed to Dowling’s 17–8 record and tournament semifinal appearance.
With an average of 32.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 2.3 steals per game as a junior, Clark topped the state in scoring. She was selected by the IPSWA as the Class 5A All-State first team and won the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year award. For the second time, Clark led the state in scoring as a senior, averaging 33.4 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and 2.7 steals per game.
After finishing with a 19-4 record, her team advanced to the Class 5A regional championship game but was defeated by Sioux City East High School. In Iowa’s history of five-on-five basketball, Clark concluded her career with the sixth-most three-pointers (283) and the fourth-most points (2,547).In addition to being named to the IPSWA Class 5A All-State first team, she also received the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year, Des Moines Register All-Iowa Athlete of the Year, and Iowa Miss Basketball awards. Clark was chosen to play in two highly regarded high school all-star games, the Jordan Brand Classic and the McDonald’s All-American Game, but both events were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clark played varsity soccer for Dowling for her first two years of school, but she switched her attention to basketball for her last two years. She scored 23 goals in her rookie campaign, and The Des Moines Register named her to the Class 3A All-Iowa team.
Private life:
Clark’s father, Brent Clark, attended Simpson College and is employed at Concentric International as a sales executive. Her mother, Italian-born Anne Nizzi-Clark, is the daughter of a former marketing executive and Bob Nizzi, the former football coach at Dowling Catholic High School.
Her two brothers are the younger Colin and the older Blake, who was an Iowa State football player in college. Her relative, Audrey Faber, played basketball for Creighton University. Two of Clark’s uncles were former collegiate athletes: Mike Nizzi played football for Nebraska-Omaha, and Tom Faber played basketball at Drake and Utica. She is seeing Connor McCaffery, the son of Iowa baseball and basketball player and head coach of the Hawkeyes men’s basketball team, Fran McCaffery.
Clark is a marketing major at the University of Iowa. In her sophomore year, the College Sports Information Directors of America (now known as College Sports Communicators; CSC) named her to the first team of Division I Academic All-Americans. Clark was named the CSC’s 2023 Division I Women’s Basketball Academic All-American of the Year as a junior, before winning the same honor for all Division I sports.
Clark is an avid golfer who has been playing since she was a small child. In the July 2023 John Deere Classic Pro-Am at TPC Deere Run, she faced off against professional golfers Zach Johnson and Ludvig Åberg.
Employees at State Farm Jake and Clark, indicating khakis, Clark made an appearance alongside “Jake from State Farm” in a State Farm commercial in 2023.
Clark’s agents are Alan Zucker, Colleen Garrity, and Erin Kane of Excel Sports Management. She is considered to be among the most marketable collegiate basketball players and athletes, according to analysts. On August 18, 2021, she signed a first name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with The Vinyl Studio, a company situated in West Des Moines, Iowa. Since joining the Nike team on October 10, 2022, Clark has regularly worn shoes from the company’s Kobe Bryant line.
On October 10, 2023, she inked a deal with State Farm, becoming the organization’s first college athlete ambassador. Following Paige Bueckers, Clark became one of the only female basketball players to represent Gatorade when she signed up with the company in December of that same year. As part of the deal, Gatorade donated $22,000—a nod to her number 22 jersey—to the Caitlin Clark Foundation, a group that enhances young people’s lives and the communities in which they reside via sports, education, and nutrition.
She has a collaboration with Hy-Vee, an Iowa-based grocery chain that launched “Caitlin’s Crunch Time” cereal in certain locations in January 2024. The sale of the cereal will generate income for Clark’s foundation. She has NIL collaborations with Goldman Sachs, Topps, Buick, Bose, and H&R Block, among other companies.