Sydney Forward missed the chance to watch her two favorite players square off on Friday night in the NCAA Women’s Final Four. While UConn’s Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark battled down to the wire for the chance to play for a national title, Forward was in Indianapolis at a Morgan Wallen concert.
While the concert and the game were both ongoing, the 14-year-old from Shaker Heights was constantly checking her phone for updates, following along as the score continued to change, knowing that she would have to go back and watch the highlights later.
The next day, Forward attended the Super Saturday open practice at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse with her father and a friend and experienced a moment that she’ll never forget.
A high-five from Clark.
After Clark and the rest of her Iowa teammates took the floor for their open practice on Saturday afternoon, the superstar needed to go back into the locker room briefly. As she walked into the tunnel, Forward was standing near the railing with her hand out. Clark touched it and Forward reacted with a high-pitched shriek and hyperventilation usually reserved for dramatic re-creations of women seeing The Beatles for the first time back in the 1960s.
“I honestly didn’t think she was gonna do that because she looked very serious,” Forward says. “That was such a surprise, but I was so happy. I did not think that was gonna happen.”
Forward frantically texted her father, who had stepped out to grab something from the car.
"DAD. SHE JUST HIGH-FIVED ME. CAITLIN CLARK. SHE TOUCHED MY HAND. HELP. I'M SHAKING."
That type of moment is one a young girl like Forward will never forget, and she’s not alone. Throughout the weekend, Cleveland has been filled with people of all ages wearing black Iowa jerseys with the number 22 on the front and back with Clark’s name across the shoulders. People are coming from all over the country to take this experience in and are becoming fans of not just Clark, but the women’s game in general because of it.
Jeff and Morgan Nielsen made the journey from Washington D.C. to be in the crowd and witness Clark in person. The father and daughter wanted to be able to share this moment together after falling for Iowa basketball during Clark’s career with the Hawkeyes.
“I grew up in Iowa, and just got kind of electrified by what the team is doing, what Caitlin Clark is doing? And it's just, you know, where else would you want to be right now?” says Nielsen.
He’s a newer fan of the game. And there are many like him. Whether or not they stay as fans once Clark moves on to the WNBA will be the game’s next test.
“I think it's just a great time for the sport. I think they've arrived, and I absolutely plan to continue watching next year and probably picking up the WNBA as well.”
Women’s basketball is having a moment that might be much more than just one flip of an hourglass. The Final Four in Cleveland has put an exclamation on it.
“Women's basketball isn't just suddenly good. Like, it's been good,” Clark says. “We are on ESPN, we are on nationally televised TV stations that people are like, ‘wow, like, this is so much fun to watch.’ They can't get enough of it. It's scheduled and they're sitting down and watching. And I don't think it's only women's basketball. I think you see it across the board, whether it's softball, whether it's gymnastics, volleyball, people want to watch. When they're given an opportunity the research and the facts show that people love it.”
Friday night’s semifinals brought forth several reasons why that’s the case. In the first game, there was dominance by South Carolina, a team that has lost one game in two years and is seeking out its second championship in a three-year period. In the second game, the sport’s two biggest stars – Iowa’s Clark and UConn’s Bueckers – dueled for a spot in the championship game as more than 14 million people watched on. The most viewers for any basketball game on ESPN in the network’s history.
“Seeing little girls and little boys look up to us, want our autograph, enjoy watching women's basketball,” says Iowa guard Kate Martin. “That is just something so cool and so special.”
Those moments haven’t always existed. When the Women’s Final Four was last in Cleveland in 2007, it was far from the big deal it is now. Having a star like Clark has helped to put this sport on solid ground moving forward. It’s created fans like Sydney Forward, the 14-year-old from Shaker Heights who now has a memory she will never forget and Jeff Nielsen, an Iowa native who didn’t pay much attention to the women’s game before Clark was on the scene.
These moments, and this game, can be here to stay.
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