Meet WNBA Superstar Caitlin Clark's Parents, Anne and Brent
"I see a lot of myself at times in Caitlin in terms of her passion for the game," her dad said.
Updated June 3 2024, 11:54 a.m. ET
All eyes have been on basketball superstar Caitlin Clark, and with good reason. The former Iowa Hawkeyes player was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, and she has gone on to make history on several occasions.
We couldn't help but wonder if the Indiana Fever point guard inherited her sports skills from her parents. Were they college basketball players too?
Here's everything we know about Caitlin Clark's parents.
Who are Caitlin Clark's parents? Did they play basketball too?
Caitlin was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 22, 2002, to Brent and Anne Nizzi-Clark.
Brent, who coached Caitlin in basketball when she was younger, played basketball and baseball when he was a student at Simpson College.
But Anne's side of the family is involved in sports too: Anne's dad (Caitlin's grandfather) coached football at Caitlin's high school, and two of Caitlin's maternal cousins, Haley and Audrey Faber, were high school basketball stars who inspired young Caitlin.
Caitlin's parents have supported her through and through, and family is everything to the basketball star. As Hawk Central wrote in its 2022 profile on the rising star: "Family is extremely important to Clark. Ignoring the family piece of Clark’s story would be to ignore her story. Family built her. Family toughened her. Family is what she’s about."
Caitlin was energetic and competitive while growing up, and pursued several different sports before focusing her sights on basketball. By the time she was a sophomore, she was ranked the No. 1 high school girls' basketball prospect in the U.S.
When it came time to deal with college recruitment inquiries, her dad took a lot of the pressure off of his daughter by helping her handle them.
"I see a lot of myself at times in Caitlin in terms of her passion for the game," Brent told KCRG-TV9 in 2023. "All in all, that's really what drives her and makes her the player that she is."
While Anne may not play sports herself, she and Caitlin still share hobbies together — including their love of baking. In fact, Anne has been known to bake cannolis for Caitlin and her teammates.
Does Caitlin Clark have any siblings?
Caitlin has two brothers, an older brother named Blake and a younger brother named Colin. The basketball star doesn't have any sisters.
Blake decided to go a different route sports-wise, choosing to play football at Iowa State instead of basketball. Colin played multiple sports for Dodge City High School as well.
As Blake told The Gazette back in 2021: "We were always involved in sports, and at home, we were always around sports. We watched sports at night whether we would go to Drake and watch basketball games, or watch cousins play their basketball games or tournaments, when you’re just around something that much, it’s what you do, too."