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An open letter to Caitlin Clark
Dear Caitlin Clark:
I just want to thank you for all that you’ve done for girls’ sports. I’ve been a sports fan for all of my long life, and I can count on one hand the number of times that I have witnessed a phenomenon such as the one that you have created.
Other than the LA teams that I grew up rooting for or the Arizona ones that I now call my favorites, Iowa has always held a special place in my heart. My high school team wore the same black-and-gold color scheme as the Hawkeyes. My mom grew up in Iowa and several of her brothers played sports in high school and college in Iowa and Nebraska. My uncle, Alfonso DiMarco, was a star quarterback at the University of Iowa. He would later become a Hall of Fame high school football coach and athletic director at Dowling High School, your alma mater.
I could tell you horror stories about the days before Title IX. I had twin sisters who were great softball players. They won the LA high school championship when they were sophomores. Right before the start of their junior-year season, their coach died unexpectedly. Instead of conducting a quick search for a new coach, the school’s administration just canceled the season.
A year later, the school still hadn’t hired a coach (it was just a girls’ sport, after all), so, at the age of 18, I coached them for free. We won the championship, but unlike the football banquet that the school paid for at the fancy hotel, we went to that new In-N-Out place that had just opened.
I just want to thank you for all that you’ve done for girls’ sports. I’ve been a sports fan for all of my long life, and I can count on one hand the number of times that I have witnessed a phenomenon such as the one that you have created.
Other than the LA teams that I grew up rooting for or the Arizona ones that I now call my favorites, Iowa has always held a special place in my heart. My high school team wore the same black-and-gold color scheme as the Hawkeyes. My mom grew up in Iowa and several of her brothers played sports in high school and college in Iowa and Nebraska. My uncle, Alfonso DiMarco, was a star quarterback at the University of Iowa. He would later become a Hall of Fame high school football coach and athletic director at Dowling High School, your alma mater.
I could tell you horror stories about the days before Title IX. I had twin sisters who were great softball players. They won the LA high school championship when they were sophomores. Right before the start of their junior-year season, their coach died unexpectedly. Instead of conducting a quick search for a new coach, the school’s administration just canceled the season.
A year later, the school still hadn’t hired a coach (it was just a girls’ sport, after all), so, at the age of 18, I coached them for free. We won the championship, but unlike the football banquet that the school paid for at the fancy hotel, we went to that new In-N-Out place that had just opened.
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/an-open-letter-to-caitlin-clark/Content?oid=35402929
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