Caitlin Clark wrote future dreams down in 3rd grade. She’s about to achieve one of them.

Caitlin Clark put her future dreams down in writing when she was a third grader at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, 12 dreams to be exact, each handwritten inside a cloud, every single one of them a lofty goal.

Her No. 1 dream was to be in the WNBA and her No. 12 dream was to have two Bernese mountain dogs. In between, she wrote that she wanted “to live in a huge mansion, to have three or four kids, to get married, to own a restaurant, to win the lottery, to be in a basketball movie, to be strong, to go (to college) on a basketball scholarship, to travel, travel across the whole world and to meet Maya Moore.”

Kathleen Drey remembers assigning the project to her third-grade class but, to be honest, she didn’t remember what Clark had written, not until ESPN showed Clark’s third grade musings on the big screen during its live coverage of the women’s NCAA tournament game between Iowa and West Virginia.

“It was really cool just to see her handwriting and have it back up there again because it brought back memories,” said Drey. Memories of a tiny Clark with a feisty spirit.

She was very competitive. She was always very, very smart. The passion and the drive, the tenacity that you see on the court, you could see on the playground every day,” said Drey. “At recess, it didn’t matter what sport was in season, she was out there with all the boys hustling and not afraid to tell them her opinion.”

All of Clark’s elementary teachers at St. Francis of Assisi, from first through sixth grade, said they knew she was going to be something. They knew she was going to go big places. They knew she was going to make a difference. They just had no idea how far she would go.

“You never dream that she’s going to take it to this level,” said Jill Westholm, who taught Clark sixth grade math and science. “But her drive and her passion? You definitely knew that she was going to be successful at whatever she chose to do.”

Or whatever she dreamed to do. As the WNBA draft plays out Monday night, Clark who shattered college basketball records while at Iowa, is predicted to be the No. 1 pick for the Indiana Fever.

“We always want our students to try their best, right? Just do your best, but she wanted to be the best,” said Westholm. “Not just her best, she wanted to be the best. Always, in everything she did.”

That’s that same girl that I see looking back at me in my classroom’

Clark’s elementary school teachers have gathered in the library at St. Francis of Assisi in Des Moines, Iowa, to talk about their former student. It’s three days before the NCAA women’s Final Four and they are all decked out in black and yellow for the Hawkeyes.

Even Clark’s fourth grade teacher, Sara Doyle, who is a huge fan of Iowa’s rival Iowa State, has put on her one Hawkeyes T-shirt.

When Clark came back to visit her old elementary school in May, Doyle went out and bought the shirt. She wore it underneath a sweater that was all buttoned up, walked up to Clark and said, “The only person I will wear a Hawkeyes shirt for,” then ripped open her sweater, “is for you.”

“I love following her journey,” Doyle said. “I am all about it.”

When Doyle watches Clark on the basketball court and sees the faces she makes, she can picture that same girl sitting in her fourth-grade classroom making those same faces, whether she wanted to do better, was frustrated with herself or she was pumped up that she did well.

“I have a hard time when I watch her play basketball because I’m like, ‘Wait, that’s that same girl that I see looking back at me in my classroom,'” Doyle said. “Not this superstar.”

But Clark is a superstar — and not one of these women sitting in the library are surprised at all.

‘Yep, this is where she belongs, with the boys, playing up a year’

Diane Murphy first saw the intense competitiveness in Clark when she taught her in first grade. Murphy had her students do something called Rocket Math, a program with levels of math facts meant to individually better each student.

In other words, students were supposed to be competing against themselves.

“She took it to a whole new level and it became very competitive,” said Murphy. “She wanted to beat everybody’s level in the classroom; but that’s just her competitiveness.”

That drive quickly transferred over to sports.

“She just went toe to toe with all the boys,” said Clark’s second grade teacher Katie Tigges. “It didn’t matter who she was playing against or what she was doing, whether academics or outside at recess.”

Tigges remembers at her class’ biography fair, Clark picked up a basketball and started spinning it on one finger, for a long, long time. Tigges’ mother was there to help.”And my mom was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s going to be something someday,'” said Tigges. “I was like, ‘She sure is.'”

Someday came quicker than anyone realized when, in third grade, Clark began playing basketball on the boys’ team. Not only that, but Clark was playing up a year. Westholm’s son is a year older than Clark and was playing basketball, too.

“And I tell you what, they did not want to lose, but they did,” Westholm said. “Honestly I was kind of like, ‘OK, I have to see this. Why is she playing against the boys?’ And when I saw her, I was like, ‘Yep, this is where she belongs, with the boys, playing up a year.'”

‘It’s not, ‘What if I miss this shot?’ It’s ‘What if I make it?”

Clark’s high school coach Kristen Meyer first saw her playing at an AAU tournament the spring of her eighth-grade year. During a break in competition, Meyer heard a voice. “Hi, I’m Caitlin Clark.” Clark has never been one to be shy or intimidated.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Caitlin embarrassed. Which, it sounds strange, but just the confidence she has in herself, but also she’s willing to be goofy, to make mistakes, she’s willing to look stupid or say something wrong and that alone separates her,” said Meyer. “Because if you’re not worried about making mistakes or what someone’s going to think or what if I miss a shot or fail, it opens up to be able to do so much more.”

And while playing for Meyer at Dowling Catholic High in West Des Moines, Clark did so much.

While she never won a state title, Clark ranks No. 4 in Iowa high school career scoring with 2,547 points. Her AAU team, the All-Iowa Attack, won the 2018 Nike GEYBL national championship and was runner-up in 2017 and 2019.

Clark has so many tools on the court, it’s hard to narrow down what makes her stand out. But, Meyer said, she immediately stood out. “No. 1, her court vision and her ability to, somehow, take in everything that she sees and process it and make a decision and then act on it immediately,” said Meyer. “Her reaction time leads to the ability to be able to have incredible passes and to just kind of know where teammates are going to be.”

Her shooting ability and her ball handling are obvious and incredible, but her mindset is something truly rare, said Meyer.

“You know, she’s a competitor. She loves a challenge and she’s fearless. I think a lot of athletes, especially female athletes, get a little bit afraid or get held back by what could go wrong,” she said. “Caitlin is the type that is always thinking, ‘What could go right.?’ It’s not, ‘What if I miss this shot?’ It’s ‘What if I make it?'”

Clark had a maturity on the court that many high school girls don’t. She was also sometimes a tough critic of her teammates because it took time for her to realize not everyone sees the game the way that she does. Not everyone is as driven, is as committed, is just able to process as quickly and physically be able to do everything either that she does or she wants them to do.

“I tell you what, there were times when she would give a compliment to a teammate and I swear they grew two inches,” said Meyer. “Because she was both hard on teammates because she had high expectations but then she would recognize when they met those expectations.”

But Clark was never as hard on anyone as she was on herself.

Can I be Caitlin Clark?’

The day Clark turned the corner from being a great player to having superstar potential came after a major disappointment. Meyer said it was the summer between her sophomore and junior year of high school. That was the summer that Clark didn’t make the USA team.Clark had made the team the summer before, but she broke her pinky while trying out the next year. Clark never blamed it on the pinky. Instead, she told Meyer she simply didn’t play well enough to make the team.

“Obviously, it’s a very highly competitive process, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of by any means,” said Meyer. “But I think that’s probably the first time in her life that she was kind of told, ‘You’re not good enough for this.'”

Clark’s drive went into a whole other gear. Her focus became razor sharp. Her work ethic catapulted.

“I think she just kind of thought, ‘Well, I’m never going to have that happen again. You know, I’m going to be so good that they can’t leave me off,'” said Meyer. “And it’s not about being mad about it, but it’s just she knew she had a higher ceiling and she wanted to kind of see how good she could get.”

Monday night, as Clark’s No. 1 dream on her third-grade list comes true, the world knows how good she became. What they don’t know is just how much more greatness she has in her or what level she will take her game to in the WNBA.

Her former teachers want her to know a few things as she launches her professional basketball career.

“I hope she knows how much she has elevated the game for women everywhere,” said Drey. “I just hope she knows that and recognizes that.”

Doyle added: “I would say to her that we are so proud of her, but just stay true to who she is. Her drive, her motivation, her faithfulness, that is what’s gotten her to this point. And I would say, keep that in your heart, know where you came from, know the people who love you. So no matter what big stage you go to, no matter how famous you are, stay true to your roots and know what got you to that point.

Tigges is in the middle of doing her class’s biography fair now, the one where Clark stood spinning a basketball on her finger. And some of her students have asked, “Can I be Caitlin Clark?”

“It kind of gave me goosebumps because there’s not a book about her right now, but someday there will be,” she said. “And someday a kid in my class could be Caitlin Clark.”

All of her teachers say the Clark people see being interviewed is the same person she’s always been. She isn’t putting on an act or putting on airs. She just wants to be the best.

“It’s kind of a dream as a teacher to be able to know where your former students are. I wish I knew where all my former students were,” Westholm said. “And to be able to see her reach her goal on the national stage, we get to follow her journey. And that’s really exciting.”