How in the world did all of this happen?

Absolutely, we central Iowa sports fans saw the early signs that Caitlin Clark was an exceptional talent while playing for Dowling Catholic High School. Clark won youth-level gold medals for Team USA and became one of the top women’s basketball recruits in America.

But there were thousands of young women before her and there will be thousands after her who are highly accomplished and highly recruited prospects. Yet no single person before her ever did what Caitlin Clark of West Des Moines, Iowa, has done to grow the game of women’s basketball.

How?

In less than four years, how did she go from Dowling Catholic student to world superstar who is sponsored by the same major sports brands that Michael Jordan once was and whose presence fueled more TV viewership for any basketball game at any level on any network in the last five years?

The Caitlin Clark story will be unpacked and told forever. Books will be written about her. An ESPN documentary that followed her final season at Iowa is entering the final stages of completion and will air in May.

And we know her story is still just beginning. On Monday night, she will be selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever. Before she even takes the court in mid-May as a pro for the first time, ticket prices for her expected appearances on the court have skyrocketed to five or six times above face value.

To fully comprehend how this all came together in this way is somewhat subjective, and not every angle can be pursued in one newspaper column or even one 45-minute documentary episode.

Certainly, one must give credit to her parents, Brent and Anne Clark, for the way they were able to raise such a remarkable daughter who somehow at age 21 and 22 has handled all the pressures of A-list celebrity and still delivered, time after time, on the basketball court while inspiring a younger generation of athletes.

Her brothers, Blake and Colin, also deserve credit for the way they helped her learn how to compete against (and eventually dominate) boys at a young age.

The uncommon intensity and desire to be great have always burned within Clark herself, and she is the one who put in so much time and work into the game she has always loved. Greatness doesn’t just happen with the snap of the fingers or by winning a genetics lottery. Clark also has a magnetic, funny and engaging personality that has allowed her to be highly marketable for sponsors like Hy-Vee, State Farm and Nike.

And credit also needs to go to all of her basketball coaches – and those in her other favorite sport, soccer, too – along the way. They deserve credit for helping bring the best out of her over the course of her 22 years. Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder sits atop that list. Bluder had the belief that Clark could take what she had built – which had peaked in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2019 – and elevate the Hawkeyes to a higher level. And Bluder and her incredible staff allowed Clark to be what God made her to be while also helping direct her now-legendary intensity into the most positive directions possible.

Still … how did this phenomenon happen? Really? It’s still hard to believe, isn’t it?

The date Feb. 6, 2022, is as good a place as any to start.