Caitlin Clark’s 26-Goal Scoring Feat in High School Soccer Resurfaces

Dowling Catholic sophomore Caitlin Clark, right, collides with West Des Moines Valley junior goalie Shelia Hostmann during the opening round of the girls state soccer tournament at Cownie Soccer Complex in 2018 (CREDITS: USA Today)

Caitlin Clark has captivated a wide range of hoops fans with her basketball skills. Her incredible shooting ability coupled with her pin-point passing has paved the way for the unprecedented spike in interest in women’s basketball. However, back in the day, Clark wasn’t just a basketball prodigy. As a soccer player, she had no trouble finding the back of the net repeatedly.

Instagram user Frank Hrelja posted a video about her prowess on the soccer field. Per the video, as a high school freshman at Downing Catholic High School in 2017, Caitlin Clark averaged over four goals a game.

In fact, she was the only freshman from Iowa to be named First-Team All-State. While her soccer skills were marvelous, she missed most of the soccer season at the varsity level because of her basketball commitments. Highlighting Clark’s impressive soccer feat, the narrator stated,

“When Caitlin was a freshman at the Downing Catholic, Iowa back in 2017, she scored 26 goals on Varsity in only six games! And Clark was the only freshman in Iowa to be First-Team All-State. Now the reason why Caitlin missed so much of the soccer season was because she was busy winning a gold medal with the U-16 national hoops team in Argentina.”

The narrator then cited Clark’s father Brent Clark who claimed that his daughter’s soccer skillset rivaled her basketball talent. He believes she might have carved a national-level soccer career had she pursued the sport full-time. One of her coaches claimed she had never seen a female with a better striking ability than Clark.

This lined up with the testimonies of other soccer coaches who witnessed many of her incredible goals. However, as she reached her sophomore year in Downing Catholic School, she had risen through the ranks as the #1 high-school women’s basketball player in the country.

Thus, she stayed put with the sport which brought her immense glory down the line. But it leaves an intriguing ‘What If’. Had she stuck with soccer, how far would she have reached? Would she have been an elite pro talent for the National Women’s Soccer League(NWSL)? Perhaps she would’ve represented the US Women’s Soccer Team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, an opportunity she controversially wasn’t afforded by the basketball team.

Well, we can’t find that out. However, one thing is for sure, her decision to pursue basketball has changed the course of the WNBA’s future, which desperately needed a star like Clark.