Youth basketball leagues in Indiana are seeing higher participation rates since star player Caitlin Clark moved to the Indiana Fever.
Clark broke various NCAA records, and is the first Division I player to get at least 3,000 points, 1,000 assists and 800 rebounds. Her talent and charisma have transformed the sport, with more people watching and investing in women’s basketball.
A recent report shows media coverage of women’s sports has increased 275 percent in the last five years and women’s sports revenue has increased 300 percent in the last three years. In 2025, women’s sports are expected to generate over $2.35 billion for the first time.
Adrian Moss, director of the Central Indiana Basketball Association (CIBA), said more girls are signing up to play over the last few years. In the summer, he has nearly 200 teams registered. He attributes this to how relatable Clark is.
“You look at LeBron James, you're like, he plays somewhere. You look at Brittney Griner, you're like, she's definitely, probably a WNBA player,” he said. “But you look at Caitlin Clark, she kind of looks like just your average person out here. And so, I think it gives, young players, they look at her and are like, ‘hey, I could go to WNBA too.’ Whatever your physical state is, or whatever you have naturally, you can be better.”
Moss hopes to get more funding for his association and is working with some of the girls to increase their exposure on social media. He wants to take advantage of the time that Clark is playing in Indiana to promote the sport at the youth level.
“It's a good time for us to be doing this,” he said. “I think it's going to do nothing but grow over the years as we continue to build it.”
Callie Schofield, 12, started playing basketball in kindergarten and plays in CIBA. Seeing how much the sport has grown with Caitlin Clark has motivated her to put more effort into the game.
“She's inspired me to play up in the college level,” Schofield said. “Hopefully, I can break as many records as her, which I probably can't, but just breaking anything at my school, hopefully just being as good as a player and a teammate as she is.”
Schofield said more girls her age are playing and watching basketball.
“Most people used to just keep walking past courts and not really pay attention, just to their own game,” she said. “But now everybody, if they see something big, they stick around. There's usually thousands of people at a basketball tournament that don't play, but really are just spectators.”
Taylor Klem also started playing basketball in kindergarten and plays alongside Schofield. Role models like Clark have encouraged her to keep playing.
“She makes me want to be a better shooter and be like her so I can inspire kids [that are] younger like me.”
Natalie Morse, program director for Indiana Girls Basketball, said they only had 4 teams, or about 35 players, playing in their program when it started in 2017. With increased interest over the years, she has been able to offer more programs. Last year, 44 teams registered to play.
“Now it's sold out, there's just girls wanting to be involved,” she said. “The most important thing is that girls get to play with girls now. Any girl who used to be interested in it were going to camps with mostly boys, and so some of the feedback that I got this week was that little girls love it because they're around only other girls.”
Morse said the increased attention has improved the quality of training. More people are dedicating time and court space to girls’ basketball.
“We were just living out of our trunks, carrying our cones and our equipment with us in the back of our trunks, and just getting in any gym that we could,” she said. “There wasn't a lot of gym space for girls to be able to even get in the gym and get better. So, I think we've definitely challenged programs to dedicate more time to young girls.”
Morse said she thinks Clark’s energy has encouraged girls to become more involved and build a more inclusive culture. She has also seen more female athletes looking up to Clark as an example.
“She (Clark) does just an impeccable job of…never putting too much pressure on herself,” Morse said, “really just showing like, I'm going to be me and but when I get on the floor, I'm also going to turn into a winner, and that requires a little bit of an attitude, aggressiveness and physicality and things that young girls have to learn at a young age, that that's part of the game.”
National youth basketball leagues like Prep Girls Hoops have also seen more participation because of popular players like Clark. Emily Somerville, strategic program manager for Prep Girls Hoops, said 1,650 teams signed up to play this year. Last year, they had around 1,400 teams.
Somerville said she has also seen more people attend Prep Girls Hoops games, not just families but also general fans.
“The kids are seeing what these pros and these college students are doing and understanding that it's a business more early on,” she said, “and that if they do work their butts off, just like if they were going to be a doctor and they started studying stuff at a really young age, you're going to accomplish the same goals based on the amount of work you put in.”
Their focus is on building a bigger platform.
“That's kind of the motto right now of everything in women's sport is grow our game, or women can do it too,” she said. “And so, I think just with us getting more even visibility on a platform, as far as ESPN and more TV channel rights and all of these things, that's where, where it really starts at the highest level, and then trickles down to us.”
The Indiana Fever’s media representative declined requests to interview Clark and any other Fever players, but after their game against the Golden State Valkyries last week, Clark spoke about the importance of setting a good example for young players.
"I think my mom has always reminded me that ever since I was a young kid too, even when you're a high school basketball player, there's young girls looking up to you and wanting to be like you, and you got to try to set the best example you can 100 percent of the time,” Clark said. And no one's going to be perfect by any means, but I think just reminding myself of that I have, how grateful I am to be in this position. It is my responsibility to try to help grow this game and do it to the best of my ability."
The Caitlin Clark Foundation aims to support youth education, nutrition and sports. The foundation recently announced a partnership with Musco Lighting to provide four new soccer and basketball community courts to increase access to recreation facilities in Des Moines.
