{"product_id":"see-it-to-be-it-isbn-9781662681448","title":"See It To Be It","description":"\u003cb\u003eTennis legend Billie Jean King profiles 11 of today’s pioneering women and nonbinary athletes in this inspiring nonfiction book that will empower athletes and sports fans ages 12 and up.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBillie Jean King made history in her 1973 \"Battle of the Sexes\" tennis match against Bobby Riggs. She proved women athletes were as capable, determined, and worth watching as men. Now, she highlights the trailblazing women and nonbinary athletes of today who are proving the same thing every time they play.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cb\u003eSEE IT TO BE IT,\u003c\/b\u003e readers will learn about well-known athletes like tennis star Naomi Osaka and WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, as well as emerging talents who deserve to be better known, such as flag football player Diana Flores and Paralympic swimmer McKenzie Coan. Featuring exclusive photos from the athletes and their families, this electrifying book shares true stories that will energize young athletes and prove that legends aren’t just born, they’re made—both on and off the playing field.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthletes profiled include Midge Purce (soccer), Chelsea Gray (basketball), Amit Elor (wrestling), Nikki Hiltz (track), Kendall Coyne Schofield (hockey), Kelsie Whitmore (baseball), and Asjia O’Neal (volleyball).\u003cb\u003eINTRODUCTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 1:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin Clark, Basketball: “Pressure Is a Privilege”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 2:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiana Flores, Flag Football:\u003cbr\u003e“You Have to See It to Be It”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 3:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKendall Coyne Schofield, Ice Hockey:\u003cbr\u003e“Ask for What You Want and What You Need”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 4:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMidge Purce, Soccer: “Relationships are Everything”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 5:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAsjia O’Neal, Volleyball: “Perspective is Priceless”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 6:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKelsie Whitmore, Baseball: “You Define Yourself”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 7:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmit Elor, Wrestling: “Be a Problem Solver”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 8:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMcKenzie Coan, Swimming:\u003cbr\u003e“Celebrate Our Differences”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 9:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNikki Hiltz, Track: “Champions Adjust”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 10:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChelsea Gray, Basketball: “Starts with Integrity”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER 11:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNaomi Osaka, Tennis: “Know Your History”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eACKNOWLEDGMENTS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCE NOTES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePICTURE CREDITS\u003c\/b\u003eBillie Jean King is a sports icon and best-selling author. She has dedicated her career to fighting for equality and advancing opportunities for women and other marginalized groups in sports. Her efforts, for which she received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, have increased education, access, and empowerment for all athletes. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eAll In: An Autobiography\u003c\/i\u003e, among other books. Visit billiejeanking.com.Caitlin Clark, Basketball \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Pressure is a Privilege”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the first day of her club basketball program, 12-year-old Caitlin Clark races to the foul line, beating everyone there to accept the coach’s challenge: make two free throws and no one has to run extra sprints. \u003cbr\u003eIt’s a big responsibility for Caitlin. She is one of the youngest of 80 girls at the All-Iowa Attack, a club that has been known for producing high school stars. \u003cbr\u003eShaking off the pressure, Caitlin makes both free throws. The players rejoice. Caitlin raises her arms in the air.\u003cbr\u003eAs she walks off the court, her coach, Dickson Jensen approaches her. “Caitlin, what are you doing?” he asks. “We've got kids here that are sophomores and juniors in high school that are top 100 players in the country. And you really think \u003ci\u003eyou \u003c\/i\u003eshould be the one to shoot that shot? Does that make sense to you?” \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin turns to him and says: “Yeah, I want to shoot it. Okay?”\u003cbr\u003eOkay.\u003cbr\u003e“This kid thinks she can do everything,” Jensen says to himself. “Clearly at this stage, we had no idea what that meant.”\u003cbr\u003eEven then, Caitlin’s steely confidence was a sign of the all-around dynamo she would become: A gamer, an entertainer, and a trailblazer. \u003cbr\u003eIn 2024, Caitlin forever altered the sports landscape, becoming a household name and attracting swarms of new fans to women’s basketball. She did this first by setting the all-time scoring record in college basketball playing for the University of Iowa, where she routinely sank jaw-dropping 3-pointers from just past the halfcourt logo. Those so-called “Logo-3s” became her trademark. \u003cbr\u003eAs the Hawkeyes’ 6-foot pony-tailed point guard, Caitlin led Iowa to back-to-back national championship appearances. Even though her team didn’t win those final games, she delivered record-breaking audiences in person and on TV. \u003cbr\u003eThe camera would catch her waving her arms or cup her hand to her ear to get the crowd involved. It was obvious: Caitlin had a swagger. Kids and adults bought her No.22 jersey in record numbers, and they lined up for autographs. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin became so popular she starred in national commercials and did a guest spot on Saturday Night Live. Then, after being chosen with the No.1 pick by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) draft, Caitlin led the league in 3-point shots made and in assists. She was named the Rookie of the Year in 2024. \u003cbr\u003eShe was following her dream. In second grade Caitlin wrote in a class assignment that she wanted to play in the WNBA. Today, even she is surprised by the scale of her success. \u003cbr\u003e“For me, it was never like, ‘I hope to be playing in front of sold-out arenas every single night.’ Or my jersey being the highest-selling jersey. Like, those aren't things you say, those aren't the most important things to you,” Caitlin told me.\u003cbr\u003e“That's what happens when you put in a lot of work and just play the game the right way. All that just comes along with it, you embrace that, and you enjoy that. But you use all the hard work that you put in to get to that moment.”\u003cbr\u003eHard work defines every star athlete. That’s not only what makes Caitlin Clark so special. I had the privilege of speaking to her, and I’ve watched her dazzling talent in person. I’ve been in touch with her dad, Brent Clark. And I’ve chatted with her coaches. From these conversations and from my own observations, I recognize the three qualities that turned Caitlin from a promising teen into a generational talent: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShe’s fearless\u003c\/b\u003e. From the time she was 5 years old and a prodigy playing on boys’ teams, Caitlin always thought she was going to make every basket, even when she didn’t. This confidence translated off the court. As a teenager – when most girls are consumed by insecurity – she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. \u003cbr\u003eWith her teammates, she’d scarf chocolate chip cookies, sing loudly at karaoke, crack jokes, and make everybody laugh. And then, when the fun was done, she’d shout out plays on the court and tell her teammates bluntly what they needed to do better. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShe’s family-first\u003c\/b\u003e. A proud Iowa product from a large, sports-loving Catholic family in Des Moines, the state capital, Caitlin has always had a support network around her. They teased her, taught her respect, and molded her into the winner she is today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShe’s a basketball savant.\u003c\/b\u003e Caitlin has always watched as many NBA, WNBA, and college basketball games as she could to memorize players’ moves and recognize similar situations. She has next-level anticipation skills and vision that she was born with. \u003cbr\u003e“I literally think her mind and her perception ability works faster than the average person,” her high school coach Kristin Meyer said. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin is like a supercomputer that can see and process mountains of data at high speed, her coaches say. She is always calculating where the other nine players are on the court, the two head coaches, the three referees, her family, friends, and even hecklers in the stands. \u003cbr\u003e“I swear during a game, if someone dropped a piece of popcorn in the 12th row, she would see it,” Meyer said. “She just can take in all of her surroundings and then make decisions, knowing the speed of people, the angles.”\u003cbr\u003eHer college coach Lisa Bluder agreed: “She can foresee things before they happen.”\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin Elizabeth Clark was born January 22, 2002, the middle child to Anne Nizzi-Clark and Brent Clark. When she started playing basketball at age 5, she chose to wear the number of the day she was born. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Honestly, I’m not a very creative person,\" she self-jokingly told reporters in 2024.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(I disagree that she’s not creative. In numerology, the number “22” is thought to signify a person who is a “Master Builder.” I was born on Nov. 22. Ilana, my wife, was born on March 22.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin and her brothers are close, partly because only five years separate them. Colin is the eldest and Blake the youngest. Caitlin has many cousins – her two older female cousins played college basketball – but she formed her closest bond with six boy cousins around her age. She wanted to beat them so badly at every game.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It's the group I wanted to run around with,” Caitlin told me. “But it also didn't always turn out the best for me, because they didn't take it easy on me. I would end up crying at an Easter egg hunt or whatever it was.”\u003cbr\u003eShe quickly added: “I always was able to hold my own in some regards. But they picked on me. And whenever I would go inside crying, everybody would just be like, ‘Here she goes again.’ Nobody had much sympathy for me, but I appreciated that.”\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin could cause other people to cry, too. She once shoved Colin into the wall because they were both going after a loose nerf basketball in the basement. Colin needed stitches.\u003cbr\u003e\"Obviously, I didn't take it easy on him,” she said.\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin’s winning mindset was apparent even in the classroom. “I got in trouble in first grade, because I was getting so upset that I was coming in second place in Rocket Math, where you get a timer and you have to complete 50 addition problems,” Caitlin said, laughing. “I would go home and practice, that's just how I was.”\u003cbr\u003eShe soon got first place. \u003cbr\u003eCompetition is in her DNA. Her grandfather, Bob Nizzi, was the longtime football coach at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines. Coach Nizzi once threw a tray of cupcakes in the trash at a family picnic because they were frosted the color of orange, the school colors of Dowling Catholic’s rival, Valley High. \u003cbr\u003eWhenever Caitlin and her brothers were in the car driving by Valley, they were taught to hold their breath. They couldn’t breathe the Valley air. \u003cbr\u003eFrom her mother, Anne, Caitlin said she gets her fiery side. Brent is more analytical. “My dad, he’s more chill,” she explained.\u003cbr\u003eIt was Brent who realized Caitlin was already too advanced at age 5 to play basketball with girls, so he put her on the boys’ team he coached for the next seven years. When Caitlin was in second grade, she led the team to a tournament victory. That caused one mother of the opposing team to complain. She didn’t like seeing her son lose to a girl. \u003cbr\u003e“I grew up playing with the boys and I never thought like, ‘Oh, this is different.’ Or, ‘Oh this is weird,’” Caitlin said. “I just love to play basketball. I love to work on the game. I love to go in the driveway and shoot baskets.”\u003cbr\u003eThe better Caitlin became, the more she backed up in the driveway to take longer distance shots. Until she was on the lawn. So, she asked her dad to dig up a part of the lawn and pave over it, giving her the full 3-point range from all sides. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt times, she used other parts of the driveway to hit tennis balls against the garage, but soon she learned the tennis court wasn’t for her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin recalled one day her parents had signed her up for a group tennis lesson with kids her age. “I got kicked out of tennis class because I was upset with the instructor because it was too easy. We weren't doing actual tennis,” she explained. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Caitlin got home, her mom was furious. \"My mom made me go all the way back and apologize to the instructor after the class was over, and then I never went back,” Caitlin said. “But I'm sure I could have been a decent tennis player.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(This story made me so angry at that tennis coach for not challenging the kids. It also made me respect Caitlin’s parents even more for teaching her good manners, as well as values that centered around their Catholic faith.) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin recalled how as a kid she worked out on virtually every holiday except Christmas. When she went to the basketball gym on Christmas Eve, it had to be in the morning. Any later and “my mom would have killed me,” Caitlin said, laughing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe never lingered in the gym, never shooting more baskets than she needed to. Her philosophy was to be efficient with her time. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom an early age, her parents never had to push her to practice or to love competition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I guess that's probably one of the hardest things for me to watch nowadays, when parents are so overly involved, and it's almost like it's about them more than it's about their kid,” Caitlin said. “And I feel very lucky and grateful that I had two parents that just let it be my thing.”\u003cbr\u003e**\u003cbr\u003eWhen Caitlin was 12, Brent figured it was time to take her out of the local boys’ basketball teams and find a challenging place where she could compete with girls her age and older. That was when she joined the Iowa Attack, a renowned Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) program 45 minutes from home, in Ames, Iowa. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer coach and founder of the Iowa Attack, Dickson Jensen, said that Caitlin always knew how to “work the room.” She saw where the best players were warming up, and she maneuvered herself into their group. She always played on teams two grades up – until there was nowhere else for her to go but college.\u003cbr\u003eFor inspiration from older players, Caitlin followed her closest WNBA team, the Minnesota Lynx. In 2014, she and her dad traveled to Minneapolis (three hours away) to see the Lynx take on the Seattle Storm. She was there for her favorite player, Minnesota forward Maya Moore, and her other favorite player, Sue Bird, the Seattle Storm star point guard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Caitlin wasn’t wearing a Moore or Bird jersey that day. Instead, she distinctly remembers wearing a green Rebekkah Brunson T-shirt, a Lynx forward who is still the only player in the WNBA with five championship rings. (Caitlin wants to break that record.) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter the game, Moore held a Q \u0026amp; A session on the court for fans. “I don't even think I was supposed to be staying for that,” Caitlin recalled. “But somehow, my dad and I were kind of down by the tunnel, and I just ran over and gave her a hug.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin didn’t have a Sharpie with her for an autograph, nor did she have a phone for a selfie. The only proof she has is her memory.\u003cbr\u003e8\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin went up to Maya Moore’s hip. She recalls Moore wearing an arm sleeve and feeling very strong. “I felt like a little7 peanut next to her,” Caitlin recalled. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Even now that I'm in that position, when people just come up to you and are like, ‘I'm such a big fan,’ or, want to just shake your hand, or a young girl wants to give you a hug, I feel like those are the most real and authentic interactions,” she said, explaining why she signs as many autographs as she can. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe dash-and-hug Caitlin had with Maya Moore was one of the rare times where Caitlin wasn’t her bold self. Everywhere else she was the boss. Even on the soccer field, which competed for her time with basketball. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Growing up, Mia Hamm was one of my favorite athletes,” Caitlin said of the US national women’s soccer team star forward. Hamm won four straight championships from 1989 to 1993 at the University of North Carolina before winning the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Caitlin had a book about Hamm that she kept on her bookshelf that she read constantly. She had a huge North Carolina women's soccer poster in her room.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a kid playing on club soccer teams, Caitlin had a strong shot and a creative mind. In one game, when she was 11, the opposing team scored a goal, and the referee brought the ball back to the center circle so Caitlin’s team could take possession. Caitlin had an idea for a totally ridiculous – but legal -- play. Her coach liked it. Her teammate would pass the ball back to her and Caitlin would immediately launch a shot on goal. From 55 yards away. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ball sailed into the net, catching everyone off guard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin credits the expansive soccer field for teaching her how to make long passes and how to move to open spaces in the field. As much as she loved getting an assist on a goal, she lived for scoring. Especially coming on a pressure-filled penalty shot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrent remembered one. “It was one of those deals where she just cranked it up over a whole line of defenders, over the goalie and into the net. It was stunning,” he told \u003ci\u003eThe Des Moines Register.\u003c\/i\u003e “It was like, ‘What did she just do there?’ It was remarkable. Like I tell people, she’s never afraid to take the last shot or the last kick. That’s the best thing about it. Whether you make it or don’t make it, it’s the desire to take it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin was so talented at soccer, she started as a freshman on the Dowling Catholic High School varsity team. The next year she stopped playing to concentrate on basketball. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Quite frankly, and I’m not trying to brag about it,” her dad told the local paper, “But I think she probably could have been the same sort of talent in soccer that she is in basketball.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003eKristin Meyer was the new girls’ basketball coach for Dowling Catholic when Caitlin arrived for summer workouts as an incoming freshman. That day, Caitlin threw a bounce pass three-quarters of the way down the court – about 60 feet – that seamlessly traveled between defenders and into the hands of an older teammate who converted the bucket.\u003cbr\u003eMeyer was instantly struck by Caitlin’s fearlessness compared to other girls on her team and around the school.\u003cbr\u003e“Teenage girls, I see them every day and it's that fear that holds them back,” Meyer said. “It's the fear of someone won't accept me, the fear of, what if I make a mistake?”\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin, she said, has never been the one to think: ‘What if I miss the shot?’ but instead: ‘What if I make it?”\u003cbr\u003eMeyer said Caitlin was always thinking: “What if we do great things?’”\u003cbr\u003eMeyer brought in older boys to play in scrimmages to make it more competitive for Caitlin. (A trend that continued in college.) Her teammates were not at her talent level, which often led her to express her frustration on the court. Meyer reminded her that her attitude sometimes upset her less-talented teammates. \u003cbr\u003eOther times, her teammates just marveled at her skill. During her junior year, Caitlin scored 60 points in a 90-78 victory, where she made 13 3-pointers – a state high school record. She had the couple hundred fans roaring.\u003cbr\u003e“I think she plays better when she can feel that the crowd is giving her energy, and she's also entertaining them,” Meyer said. “She wants to entertain people and also push her limits. She always loved the experience, especially if it was a big game.”\u003cbr\u003eWhen the high school basketball season ended, Caitlin went straight back to playing with her club team. It was with that team – the Iowa Attack -- where she won a championship: the 2018 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League title crowning the top youth team in the nation. \u003cbr\u003eThat same summer after her sophomore year, Caitlin did not make the Under-17 US national basketball team (a feeder program for the Olympic team). She called her club coach, Dickson Jensen, in tears. Caitlin wasn’t upset over the injustice, but with the realization she wasn’t good enough, he recalled. “I need to be better, what do I need to do?” she asked him. \u003cbr\u003eAs a 15-year-old, Caitlin wasn’t yet a reliably accurate shooter, Jensen said. Caitlin also hadn’t grown to her current height, and defenders were pushing her around. She needed the 3-pointer as her weapon.\u003cbr\u003e“That was the turning point of her career,” Jensen told me.\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin became more disciplined about shooting, working before practice in the gym, staying late, and then using the automated ball feeder so she could get into a rhythm. Or she’d be in her driveway. Colleges took notice of her improvement. \u003cbr\u003eThe University of Iowa had been recruiting Caitlin since she was in 7th grade, but her parents tried to shield her from the attention and be a kid. They had Blake, Caitlin’s older brother, get the mail before Caitlin could see any of the letters from college recruiters. \u003cbr\u003eIn high school, coaches from Notre Dame and Iowa were often in the stands to watch games and practices. The one coach who didn’t show? Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut, where Caitlin’s favorite players, Maya Moore and Sue Bird, won championships. At the time, Auriemma already was recruiting guard Paige Bueckers, who would commit to UConn in the spring of her junior year. But the snub bothered Caitlin. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin was still weighing where she might carve out her own legacy. Notre Dame was an established powerhouse in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), having advanced to the semifinals or the championship game in seven out of the previous nine years. Could Caitlin make a difference there? Iowa, on the other hand, had not been one of the last four teams playing in the national collegiate tournament – known as the Final Four -- since 1993. \u003cbr\u003eIowa went the extra mile to recruit her. That meant not only going to watch Caitlin’s high school and club games, but her international tournaments, as well. Iowa’s head coach Lisa Bluder, and her associate head coach, Jan Jensen, flew to Thailand in 2018 when Caitlin was playing for the US national 19-and-under team. \u003cbr\u003eBut because of rules restricting unfair recruiting advantages, they could only watch Caitlin play but not talk to her in person. They could, however, talk to her on the phone. So Bluder, in Bangkok, gave Caitlin a call. \u003cbr\u003eShe could sense that Caitlin was grateful for a connection to home.\u003cbr\u003e“As fearless as she is, she loves her people,” Bluder said. \"She loves to be around people that she really cares about. She's very family oriented.”\u003cbr\u003eAt first, Caitlin committed to Notre Dame, arguably the most famous Catholic school in the nation. She knew that would make her parents happy. \u003cbr\u003eBut it didn’t feel right. A few days later, Caitlin committed to Iowa and told her parents she had changed her mind. Her mom reminded Caitlin that she had to call Notre Dame coach Muffett McGraw to apologize for her turnaround.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003eWhen Caitlin got to Iowa in 2020, she walked into the locker room and noticed a small black frame hanging next to the television. Inside was a note written diagonally on yellow lined paper: “To the Iowa Women’s Basketball Team -- Pressure is a Privilege.”\u003cbr\u003eThose were my words. I wrote them for Coach Bluder when I met her in 2016, and I then added my signature to the note. I got to know her through my friend, Iowa’s athletic director, Dr. Christine Grant (who hired Bluder). Back in 1972, Christine and I were on the front lines advocating for the passage of Title IX that mandated equity in educational settings. That meant that all public schools had to ensure that girls had the same athletic opportunities as boys. \u003cbr\u003eI love that Caitlin walked by this frame every day of her four-year career. Coach Bluder even read from my book, \u003ci\u003ePressure is a Privilege,\u003c\/i\u003e before practices, mining it for inspiration. \u003cbr\u003e“That was something that we lived by,” Caitlin said. “There was always a spotlight on us, a lot of pressure to do better than we did the year before, or to perform to a certain standard. We kind of were the standard in women's college basketball.” \u003cbr\u003eIn Caitlin's freshman season, the 2020-2021 pandemic year, crowds weren't allowed in the arena. But important people still took notice when Caitlin finished as the nation’s leading scorer in Division I (the highest level). \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin won the Dawn Staley Award, named for the Hall of Fame point guard and current coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team. Dawn gets a vote as part of the committee, which decides which player best displayed the skills she did in her career – ball handling, scoring, passing.\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin went on to become the first three-time winner in the award’s history. “Caitlin is an absolute force,” Staley said in 2023. “Someone who is quite literally changing the way basketball is being played.”\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin’s game was more than hitting clutch shots. Her dazzling passing also left teammates, opponents, and fans shaking their head in wonder. She appeared to find secret passageways through the defense to deliver teammates a perfect pass. She led the nation in average assists for the last three years of her college career.\u003cbr\u003e“I take a lot of pride in being able to pass the ball,” Caitlin told me. “I find it fun to set your teammates up and help them get a shot. It wows the crowd just as much.”\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin’s Iowa coaches embraced her fearlessness to make daring passes or take shots from anywhere. “You don’t say ‘Woah!’ to a racehorse,” Bluder recalled.\u003cbr\u003eAnd yet, Bluder told me, Caitlin still had to learn how to bring others with her. \u003cbr\u003eDuring the recruiting period, Caitlin asked Bluder to recommend some leadership books. She gave Caitlin a list, including national team soccer star Abby Wambach’s bestseller \u003ci\u003eWolfpack\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLean-In\u003c\/i\u003e, by former Facebook leader Sheryl Sandberg, addressed to women. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin learned to trust her teammates to catch her passes, and to turn negative emotions to positive reinforcement. Or at least tone down her frustrated reactions. She was still prone to outbursts, which prompted referees to whistle her for technical fouls. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin had help from one wise teammate, her best friend, Kate Martin. Some of the Iowa Hawkeyes were scared to hold Caitlin accountable, but not Kate. She was the daughter of a high school football coach, a 6-foot-guard who quickly gained Caitlin’s respect for her similar work ethic and vision. It was Kate, not Caitlin, who was Iowa’s sole captain for three straight years. \u003cbr\u003eIn 2023, the Iowa Hawkeyes made the Final Four for the first time in 30 years behind Caitlin’s clutch shooting. The Hawkeyes then defeated the previous year’s champions, South Carolina, in the semifinals to get to the title game. In that final, Iowa faced a tough Louisiana State team led by forward rebounding sensation, Angel Reese. \u003cbr\u003eCaitlin scored 41 points, including hitting nine 3-pointers, and also dished out 12 assists. But Angel and LSU were too strong. Near the end of the game, Angel walked near Caitlin, waived her hand and then gestured to her finger. Angel was taunting her by saying that finger would soon be fitted for a championship ring. A rivalry was born. \u003cbr\u003eBut there was also an ugliness underlining the rivalry, and it had to do with race. Angel, who is Black, said she received death threats on social media from fans of Caitlin. Angel would later call out WNBA fans in Indiana for shouting racial epithets. Caitlin responded by saying that there was “no place for that in the game and in society.” \u003cbr\u003eAt the beginning of Caitlin’s senior year, the Iowa team had become so popular, it played a preseason game in the university’s football stadium. Caitlin scored 34 points and had 11 assists in front of 55,646 fans who cheered with every 3-pointer she made. \u003cbr\u003eThat set the tone for her senior season. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, she became the all-time leading women’s scorer in Division I, surpassing Lynette Woodard who had played for Kansas in the late 1970s. Caitlin notched that first record with – what else? -- a Logo-3. Then she became the overall scoring leader in Division I college basketball, passing Pete Maravich who played at Louisiana State from 1967-1970. To clinch that record, Caitlin knocked down two free throws, just like she practiced as a 12-year-old at her club program. She finished with 3,951 points during her college career.\u003cbr\u003eEvery record and every victory seemed to bring the kind of party that Caitlin the gamer and the entertainer adored: confetti, sold-out crowds, kids in No.22 jerseys asking for autographs, and another run to the Final Four. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis was always her favorite time of year, the final two weeks of March where 68 teams played in a high-stakes tournament, advancing round by round to win the title. Anything could happen, which is why the NCAA trademarked the basketball tournament, “March Madness.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a long time, though, the NCAA would only let the men’s tournament use the branding on their court logos and T-shirts. That changed in 2022 after an internal investigation (prompted by a viral video from women’s basketball player Sedona Prince) showed the NCAA had prioritized men’s basketball, furthering gender inequity. The women could now be part of “March Madness.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin always loved the madness of both the women’s and men’s tournaments. She remembered sitting around on Spring Break with her family and making predictions on who would win each round – penciling in the winners in the tournament bracket as soon as the matchups were announced. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I think March Madness is the greatest postseason tournament in all of sports,” she said. “It's one chance, do or die. It's not a seven-game series like the NBA, or five game series like the WNBA.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s win or go home, exactly the type of pressure-filled challenge that fuels Caitlin. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the 2024 Final Four, Iowa faced a rematch with Angel Reese and LSU in the national semifinal game. This time, Iowa won. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the final, Iowa met a steamroller: Coach Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks who were undefeated. A total of 18.9 million people watched the competitive game on broadcast outlets, more than doubling the numbers from 2023. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven more eye-raising? The women’s championship got 4 million more TV viewers than the men’s college championship did the next night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaitlin was teary-eyed in interviews after Iowa’s loss to South Carolina. She was the Consensus National Player of the Year for the second straight year, but her team was the runner-up for the second straight time. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe cried for more than losing the national championship. \"It was more so like, ‘Dang, this ended,'\" she said. “You spend so much time with your teammates, and luckily for me, my teammates were my best friends. And then all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye and a 40-minute game, once the clock hits zero, it's over, you're not coming to practice the next day.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA week later, Caitlin was in New York City with Angel Reese and the other top seniors for the WNBA draft. The players posed for glamor shots before the selections, with Caitlin wearing a specially designed white Prada mini-skirt, crop top and jacket. When the Indiana Fever chose her, as expected, for the No.1 pick, Caitlin held up her new No.22 jersey. Replicas would soon sell out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the splashy draft event, it was clear the WNBA had come a long way since it began play in 1997 with eight teams and three marquee stars from the 1996","brand":"Calkins Creek","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233538420965,"sku":"NP9781662681448","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662681448.jpg?v=1773177301","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/see-it-to-be-it-isbn-9781662681448","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}