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After a whirlwind spring that will include the prestigious McDonald\u2019s All American Game at the Final Four on March 31, the Nike Hoop Summit in April, and her graduation in May, Woliczko will head to Iowa to begin her college experience with summer school and basketball conditioning. Woliczko was named a prestigious Naismith high school All-American a week ago, and is\u00a0Hawkeyes coach Jan Jensen\u2019s highest-ranked recruit in the post-Caitlin Clark era. As a result, Woliczko will inevitably draw comparisons to the player who ignited women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
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Mitty forward McKenna Woliczko fights for a position during a NorCal playoff game\u00a0 against San Ramon Valley-Danville in San Jose on March 7.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that Caitlin and I are both different people and completely different players who impact the game in different ways,\u201d Woliczko said. \u201cBut, if anything, I feel honored that people have compared me to Caitlin Clark.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Woliczko is a wing forward, who can rebound, defend and score in a variety of ways. Clark is a point guard with a lethal long-range shot.<\/p>\n \u201cComparisons are the thief of joy,\u201d said Mitty coach Sue Phillips. \u201cIt can be limiting and sometimes the expectations can be overwhelming.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately she plays a completely different position. And that allows her to be McKenna.\u201d<\/p>\n However, if Woliczko continues on the trajectory she has been on, she could not only become a new favorite of the rabid Hawkeyes fan base, but a national name. She is entering the collegiate game when the spotlight has never been bigger and opportunities abound.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes you grateful for all the people that have gone before me and helped set the path for what athletics is today for women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Iowa\u00a0women\u2019s basketball Head Coach Jan Jensen, right, and Erica Woliczko, center, watch Woliczko\u2019s daughter McKenna after a NorCal playoff game in San Jose on March 10.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle LEFT: McKenna Woliczko stands for a photograph with ten year-old Teagan Doan after being gifted a bracelet by Doan. RIGHT: Woliczko autographs her friend Billy Ferreira\u2019s shirt after her CIF open division NorCal semifinal game against San Ramon Valley.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n LEFT: McKenna Woliczko stands for a photograph with ten year-old Teagan Doan after being gifted a bracelet by Doan. RIGHT: Woliczko autographs her friend Billy Ferreira\u2019s shirt after her CIF open division NorCal semifinal game against San Ramon Valley.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Woliczko has landed in a transforming world: She was born in 2008 and began high school while Clark\u2019s star was skyrocketing, carrying women\u2019s basketball with her. At the same time, the forces of the name, image and\u00a0likeness (NIL) concept were reshaping college sports.<\/p>\n \u201cI told her that I hope she continues to walk with grace, confidence and humility because that\u2019s how I have seen her manage all of these things that have come her way,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cShe had an agent her junior year in high school to help her navigate these waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBut now it\u2019s a job. And that comes with added responsibility. I don\u2019t think she\u2019s going into this blindly.\u201d<\/p>\n Woliczko\u2019s family background will also help her navigate this moment. Both her parents were collegiate athletes at University of the Pacific: Her mother, Erica, played softball and her father, Aaron, played basketball. Aaron went on to a coaching career and is now a senior associate commissioner for the West Coast Conference. He knows how college basketball operates and tries to keep it in perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cBasketball could become business later on in life,\u201d Aaron said. \u201cBut right now we want her to be able to be a kid, have the college life, have fun. I think she\u2019s been able to do that. And, hopefully, her career will be longer than if we treat basketball as a business right now.\u201d<\/p>\n LEFT: McKenna Woliczko puts on makeup before commuting to school. RIGHT: McKenna Woliczko prepares to leave for school with luggage for Saturday\u2019s CIF State Championship game, as her father Aaron catches up on the morning news.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n LEFT: McKenna Woliczko puts on makeup before commuting to school. RIGHT: McKenna Woliczko prepares to leave for school with luggage for Saturday\u2019s CIF State Championship game, as her father Aaron catches up on the morning news.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n As a little girl in Montana, when Aaron coached Montana Tech, Woliczko ran around the gym, accompanied her father on recruiting trips and dreamed about a future full of sports and Olympic glory.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI saw sports as my path,\u201d she said. \u201cBut basketball was probably the last option I would have chosen when I was younger. It would have been softball, soccer, then volleyball, and then basketball. So it was very vague.\u201d<\/p>\n But she was goal-oriented. When she was 8, she made a poster for her bedroom wall that proclaimed \u201cI want to be the best in the country! I will be the best in the country! I am the best in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI just never specified what I wanted to be best at,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cBut I knew I wanted it.\u201d<\/p>\n When she was in fifth grade she proclaimed she wanted to be an Olympian. Still no specific sport designation.<\/p>\n In the fifth grade, McKenna Woliczko declared her dream of being an Olympian. She played a variety of sports in childhood, including flag football, top right, and softball.<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Aaron Woliczko<\/p>\n In the fifth grade, McKenna Woliczko declared her dream of being an Olympian. She played a variety of sports in childhood, including flag football and softball.<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Aaron Woliczko The poster that McKenna Woliczko made for her bedroom wall when she was eight years old.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Aaron Woliczko<\/p>\n The family moved back to the Bay Area, eventually settling in San Bruno where Erica grew up. Woliczko was playing both travel softball and basketball, but started seeing college coaches at her Bay City basketball games and realized hoops could be her destiny.<\/p>\n In 2022, she enrolled at\u00a0Mitty, joining a program that was already a powerhouse. She became a starter as a freshman and the summer after her freshman year was tapped for USA Basketball\u2019s U-16 team, where she averaged a double-double and helped the team win a FIBA gold medal in Mexico.<\/p>\n Woliczko\u2019s star was on the rise. The recruiting letters were pouring in. She won another gold medal for USA Basketball at FIBA\u2019s U-17 championship and was named to the All Star Five. Mitty was rolling.<\/p>\n And then, on Jan. 4, 2025, nine games into her junior season \u2014 arguably the best player on the best team in the country \u2014 her world changed. In a high-profile tournament at Carondelet High School in Concord, Woliczko was getting back on defense against powerhouse Ontario Christian. Without any contact, Woliczko fell to the court, grabbing her right knee.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my 30-plus years of coaching that was the most stunned I have ever seen a gym,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cIt was such a gut punch.\u201d<\/p>\n The diagnosis was a full ACL tear and meniscus damage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely a very stressful experience,\u201d Woliczko said. \u201cDeep down I knew at the moment I had torn it. It was a hard few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Archbishop Mitty senior McKenna Woliczko during the CIF Basketball State Championships Open Division Girls game against Ontario Christian at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 14.<\/p>\n Chris Kaufman\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n But one of the first people to reach out was South Carolina coach Dawn\u00a0Staley, who called to assure Woliczko that South Carolina was still interested in her. Other college coaches told her that so many great players had torn ACLs, that it was not a career changer.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone said they still wanted me,\u201d Woliczko said. \u201cSo that was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Woliczko began the long rehabilitation process, both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n \u201cShe took a holistic approach from the standpoint of understanding the emotional toll this will have,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cThings like journal writing and talking to experts to formulate the right mindset. We all wanted to make sure she knew there was no rush and that we needed to make sure she was completely healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd she was a great teammate, at all the practices she could make, cheering on her teammates, giving sage advice. So when she stepped back on the floor she was fully embraced.\u201d<\/p>\n LEFT: McKenna Woliczko, second from right, cheers from the bench during the second half of the CIF open division NorCal semifinal. RIGHT: Woliczko, second from left, smiles as she and teammates gather in a huddle before their open division semifinal game against San Ramon Valley.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n TOP: McKenna Woliczko, second from right, cheers from the bench during the second half of their CIF open division NorCal semifinal. ABOVE: Woliczko, second from left, smiles as she and teammates gather in a huddle before their open division semifinal game against San Ramon Valley.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n As she was rehabilitating, Woliczko worked on her shot. She was also deciding her future. She knew she wanted to go somewhere away from home. Her final four choices came down to Iowa, South Carolina, USC and Ohio State.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was about where I was going to be the most comfortable, living, education-wise, not just basketball,\u201d Woliczko said. \u201cI knew that Iowa was the place for me. It will definitely be a big change but it\u2019s always good to venture out.\u201d<\/p>\n Woliczko committed to Iowa in October. She doesn\u2019t know Clark, but she noticed that the Indiana Fever star has commented on her Instagram posts. Kate Martin<\/a>, who played with Clark at Iowa and is now with the Valkyries<\/a>, messaged Woliczko to tell her she was welcome to wear her old No. 20.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n One year, minus one day, after her devastating injury, Woliczko returned to the court.<\/p>\n McKenna Woliczko, center, and fellow Archbishop Mitty basketball teammates listen to assistant coach Tamara Monson as they prepare for the drive to Sacramento ahead of the CIF state championship, in San Jose, Calif., Friday, March 13, 2026. Woliczko, a senior and one of the top basketball recruits in the country, will be going to Iowa this fall.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cRight before, I was super nervous,\u201d she said. \u201cBut then I played and I just felt good. Ever since that first game, I don\u2019t even think twice about my knee.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips said she sensed Woliczko had a sense of gratitude, being back on the court. And she picked up where she left off, averaging double doubles in the face of double and triple teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n She helped lead Mitty to a Central Coast Section championship, the NorCal championship and to the state final, where Mitty fell to Ontario Christian, losing the state championship game for a fifth year in a row.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the one thing I wasn\u2019t able to cross off my bucket list,\u201d Woliczko said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s time for a new bucket list. Woliczko is about to launch.<\/p>\n Archbishop Mitty High School forward McKenna Woliczko (20), center, gestures to a teammate after a score during the first half of their CIF open division NorCal championship against Clovis West in San Jose on March 10.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 36 hours after her\u00a0Mitty High School basketball career ended with a disappointing loss in the state championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,17227,2044,15251,105568,88,90,89,127,8859],"class_list":["post-232717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-schools","tag-mckenna-woliczko","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sports","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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