Kristin Meyer had no idea she was about to coach basketball’s next big thing when she applied for the girls head coaching job at Dowling Catholic in 2016. People around the program quickly informed her of a rising eighth grader just down the street in West Des Moines, IA that was already building a burgeoning national reputation before she played a second of high school ball. It didn’t take Meyer long to figure out what all the hype was about.

Meyer’s phone rang shortly after accepting the position. On the other end was an assistant coach for a top-10 college program inquiring about her incoming freshman. Meyer still hadn’t seen much of the player to that point, so she asked a simple question: just how good is Caitlin Clark really supposed to be?

The college coach said she could start for their team right now as a 14-year-old.

Clark joined her new high school teammates for the first time during a preseason camp at Creighton. She quickly threw a three-quarters court bounce pass in transition for a layup, then she whipped a behind-the-back dime to a teammate for another score.

“Two incredible passes,” Meyer said. “Even if a college player made them, it would have stood out. That’s when I realized what she could do with the basketball.”

The entire country now knows what Clark can do with the basketball as she’s blossomed into one of the biggest stars in the sport. As a freshman with the Iowa Hawkeyes, all Clark did was lead the country in scoring (26.6 points per game) and finish third in assists (seven per game). She improved both numbers and finished first in both categories this season as a sophomore. While she did it, Iowa captured a Big Ten regular season title and conference tournament championship in the same season for the first time in program history.

Clark’s outrageous numbers and growing list of accomplishments speaks for itself, but it’s not the reason she’s become such a sensation this year. There’s visceral thrill to watching the 6-foot point guard unleash her deadly scoring package, with deep pull-ups, stepbacks, and logo threes all becoming a regular part of her game. The sheer audacity of some of her shots is only topped by the wonder if seeing them swish through the net so often.

“They have to guard me when I cross halfcourt now,” Clark told SB Nation. “People have guarded me tighter and harder this year. Those are the types of shots I practice everyday in practice or when I come into the gym. Being able to stretch the floor more has only made it easier for my teammates.”

That Clark might also be the country’s best playmaker puts opposing defenses in an impossible bind. Her best highlights from this season have been shared millions of time. Kevin Durant has talked about her on his podcast, LeBron James posted about her on his Instagram, and Sue Bird called her the “most exciting player in college basketball right now.” At this point, Clark has a star quality that only the biggest names can match, but she isn’t satisfied with viral clips and public praise.

Clark has “Final Four” written in her locker — a round Iowa has reached only once and not since 1993.

“I’m not afraid to say my goals,” Clark said.

With a No. 2 seed in the 2022 women’s NCAA tournament, Clark has the Hawkeyes on the cusp of something special. As a lifelong Iowan, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Clark’s most defining quality is her ferocious competitive spirit. It was honed playing sports against her brothers and male cousins around the family’s home in West Des Moines.

“I got picked on, I got pushed around a lot, but I grew up playing with the boys and against the boys,” Clark said. “I think that helped me become bigger, stronger, faster, and kind of develop skill at a different level.”

Clark’s first organized basketball team was an all-boys league that she reportedly dominated. Being the only girl on the floor didn’t seem strange to her at the time, but it did mark the beginning of one trait that has stuck with her to this day: She hated to lose.

“I’d cry when we didn’t win,” Clark said. “I loved to compete even from a young age.”

Clark spent her early years dreaming of playing for Dowling Catholic, where her grandpa was the head football coach, her brother was the starting quarterback on a state championship team, and her female cousins starred in basketball. By the time she was in eighth grade, she was already scrimmaging against the high school varsity team and earning national recognition playing for All-Iowa Attack on the grassroots circuit.

When she finally got to Dowling, it was immediately evident this would be her team.

“She’s the type of player who is drawn to the ball and the ball is drawn to her,” Meyer said. “Everything flows better when the ball is in her hands. Even if we told her to play another position, she would still find a way to control the ball.”

Clark was a standout from the moment she took the floor, averaging 15 points per game as a full-time starter. When the year was over, she tried out for the 2017 USA U16 National Team despite being one of the youngest players at the camp. She made the team and flew to Argentina to help win a gold medal. Clark came back to Dowling as a more confident and explosive scorer. Again, she tried out for USA Basketball after the season in an older age group, this time with the U17 squad. She didn’t make it. For the first time in her life, Clark was told she wasn’t good enough.

“I saw the biggest growth in her game before his sophomore and junior years,” Meyer said. “She was always the best athlete in whatever sport she did, going to the USA trials and not making the team was kind of the first case of hearing ‘there’s people better than you.’ That gave her an extra drive and motivation that she needed to take that next step.”

As Clark came back for her junior season, she was essentially unguardable. Her scoring average jumped to 32 points per game, and she started incorporating more stepback jumpers into her arsenal. She dropped 60 points in a game against Mason City where she shot 13-of-17 from three-point range. Dowling won, 90-78, and needed every one of Clark’s shots to keep them alive.

Clark wanted to make her college commitment ahead of her senior season. She was part of a loaded national recruiting class that also featured Paige Bueckers (UConn), Cameron Brink (Stanford), and Hailey Van Lith (Louisville), all players who have come to shape women’s basketball since entering college. Clark could have played anywhere in the country, but she quickly realized the most important thing to her was staying close to home.

“I wanted to have my family there,” Clark said of her decision to pick the Hawkeyes. “I wanted them to be able to come to my games. After visiting places all around the country, I think that’s kind of what’s important to me. I wanted to be close to home.”

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Clark made her debut at Iowa by dropping 27 points in 26 minutes in a win over Northern Iowa. She followed that up with 30 points and 13 assists in a win over Drake in the next game. After a win over Wisconsin, Iowa faced Iowa State. Clark finished with 34 points, seven rebounds, and six assists in another Hawkeyes victory.

The blistering start to her college career set the foundation for an incredible freshman season. Iowa had to replace four starters from the previous season around junior big Monika Czinano, but they suddenly had a superstar at point guard who could be the center of their universe. The Hawkeyes went 20-10 record and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.

When Iowa faced No. 4 seed Kentucky in the second round, Clark had more points than the Wildcats by herself at the half before ending the game with 35. That set up a matchup with UConn and Bueckers. The Hawkeyes were crushed by 20 points and Clark had one of her toughest shooting nights of the season, going 7-of-21 from the field against a Huskies team that was throwing multiple defenders at her most of the game.

Despite the bummer ending, Clark still finished the season leading the country in total assists (214), field goals made (266), total points (799), three-pointers attempted (286), and three-pointers made (116). It would be hard for anyone to top those numbers the next year, but somehow Clark has become even more of a phenomenon as a sophomore.

Iowa began this year at No. 9 in the preseason polls. Clark started her sophomore season with two triple-doubles in the first six games, first against low-major Southern and then vs. Big Ten rival Michigan State. As Iowa welcomed Evansville for their 10th game of the season, Clark was the precipice of scoring 1,000 career points quicker than any player in college basketball history except for Elena Delle Donne.

She hit the milestone in the first half, then she kept on scoring. By the end of the night she had 44 points and eight assists, and only need two made three-pointers to do it. That game seemed to jumpstart Clark’s season, because from that point on she was unstoppable.

She scored 30 or more points in four of her next five games, finishing with double-digit assists three times in the stretch. Clark capped her tremendous January with another ridiculous scoring outburst against Ohio State, this time finishing with 43 points and punctuating her performance with the hallowed `Jordan Shrug.`

For the month, Clark averaged 30.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game.

After posting another triple-double against Wisconsin in her next game, Clark put on the performance that elevated her star to the stratosphere. With a roster limited to just seven available players against conference-leading Michigan, Iowa fell into a 12-point deficit at halftime. Clark erupted in the second half, pulling out logo threes, stepbacks against multiple defenders, and crafty scoring moves inside the arc.

Iowa still lost the game, but Clark woke up as the most talked about player in college basketball the next morning. Highlights from her 46-point and 10-assist performance fully went viral. This video has 2.6 million views.

Iowa has played nine games since that loss to Michigan, and they’ve won eight of them. That span includes their championship run at the Big Ten tournament, which featured a 41-point Clark masterpiece against Nebraska in the semifinals. Clark went cold in the title game against Indiana, but her teammates picked her up: her frontcourt co-star Czinano finished with 30 points, teammate Kate Martin had 14 points, and the Hawkeyes won the conference tournament for only the second time since Clark was born in 2002.

Clark’s sophomore season has come with another benefit beyond sudden increase in fame: she’s actually able to make some money off her talent now. The NIL rules have been lucrative to Clark, who has a couple high-profile endorsements. She partnered with grocery store Hy-Vee for a sponsorship deal, and then was picked as one of two players (along with South Carolina guard Zia Cooke) to be the face of H&R Block’s pledge to donate $1 million to female college athletes across the country.

“Everyone probably knows about the weight room situation and everything that happened at the tournament last year,” Clark said. “Giving back to female college athletics is something we really need. Being able to use my voice and my platform was a super easy yes for me.”

Clark would be a top pick in the WNBA draft today if she was allowed to enter, but league rules dictate that American college players must graduate before they’re eligible. As rookie contract salaries in the WNBA remain low, it’s possible Clark is making more off endorsements in college with the NIL than she would be under a WNBA contract.

Clark already profiles as the sort of ‘heliocentric’ star scouts and executives dream about. She is legitimately an offensive system unto herself. Clark is masterful in the pick-and-roll because it’s nearly impossible to guard against her elite passing and elite scoring. She’s incredibly good at deceleration, slowing down during a full sprint, keeping her defender on her hip, and finding a passing angle or space for her floater. The footwork that sets up all those pull-up threes feels like it’s more advanced than anyone in the country. Surrounded by a skilled interior scorer in Czinano, two good three-pointer shooters in McKenna Warnock and Gabbie Marshall, and a quality defender in Kate Martin, Clark is perfectly set up to have the Hawkeyes revolve around her singular talents.

Clark’s individual accolades are undeniable. She’s already had achieved team success at a high level with three gold medals with USA Basketball and the Hawkeyes’ twin conference title banners this season. But she wants more. The Hawkeyes are rolling entering the NCAA tournament, yet find themselves as the No. 2 seed in the same region as No. 1 overall seed South Carolina. If both teams are still standing, there’s going to be a classic Elite Eight matchup on deck.

The story writes itself: local superstar chooses her state school over more established powers, and elevates them to the highest stages in the game. Clark has all of the plot points for a smash hit. She just needs to write the ending.