Our Take: Woliczko chooses Iowa

In case you missed the news from early last week, Archbishop Mitty of San Jose 6-foot-2 senior wing McKenna Woliczko has committed to the University of Iowa. The big-time national recruit coming off of an ACL knee injury from last January that caused her to miss the rest of the season. While our report isn’t immediate like others in the media, we have details that others don’t. Some of the other published reports were from media outlets who didn’t even attend McKenna’s press conference.

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There have been several stories that have been published by multiple media sources, both in California and in Iowa, some that attended and others that didn’t attend the October 1 Zoom press conference presented by the Archbishop Mitty athletic department to announce the commitment of Monarchs’ girls basketball star McKenna Woliczco to the University of Iowa. The press conference included Woliczko, head coach Sue Phillips and athletic director Patrick Kennedy.

However, we like to think that the Cal-Hi Sports take on the commitment is a bit unique, because other than Mitty’s hometown San Jose Mercury News, no other single media outlet has covered more of McKenna’s games or given her more accolades.

There were over 80 college coaches that graced the Girls California Live 2025 NCAA Certified Scholastic Viewing Event at the Roebbelen Center in Roseville with their presence in late June, and many came from Division I and high profile programs, but most were from California or other western states.

In the 120-team field there were many top high school teams and players competing from both Northern and Southern California, plus Oregon. However, when the college coaches registration application for Iowa head coach Jan Jensen came in, it was pretty clear who she was there to see and recruit, and Jensen couldn’t even see the player she flew halfway across the country see play. That’s because although she was there with her Mitty team to root them on, Woliczko was in street clothes.

We pretty much knew Woliczko was considering the Hawkeyes along with several other schools, most notably Ohio State, South Carolina and Southern California, but from that point on it appeared the attention Jensen gave to McKenna made Iowa the front runner.

“When Coach Jensen called me and told me she was coming out to see me and Coach (Sue) Phillips that stuck out to me,” Woliczko said in response to a question we posed at the press conference about whether that trip to Northern California by Jensen tipped the scale in the favor of Iowa.

Whether or not that visit by Jensen and the show of love was a factor in her decision, Woliczko named several other factors in her decision to play for Jensen and the Hawkeyes come next fall.

The video that appeared on social media of the Facetime call McKenna made to Jensen to tell her of her decision pretty much says it all. The call came in during an Iowa team meeting and photo shoot and Jensen was flanked by Hawkeyes’ sophomore center Ava Heiden on her left shoulder and freshman post Layla Hays on the right.

The conversation started out pretty calm by Jensen saying “Hey, how are you” with players asking who is it? Then, when Woliczko asks Jensen, “Do you have number 20 available” the scene turned to bedlam. “What? Yes. Do we have No. 20? Do we have number 20?” said Jensen turning towards the team. “Yes we do,” she screamed.

At that point, Hays and Heiden began screaming and the whole team began to scream and jump for joy as Jensen turned the phone around so the entire team could see McKenna.

“Oh my gosh. Thank you so much,” Jensen continued. “We were just talking about it in the circle. You’re joining a great family.”

When Woliczko does sign on the dotted line later this month and makes her commitment official, she will become the second top player from California in two years to take her game to Iowa City after former Mater Dei (Santa Ana) star and 2025 Cal-Hi Sports All State First Team honoree Addison “Addie” Deal will begin her freshman season this fall at Iowa.

Woliczko, who is ranked as the No. 6 player overall in the nation in the class of 2026 and the No. 1 wing by ESPN, and the No. 2 power forward and No. 6 player overall by 247Sports, is also the top recruit to commit to Iowa in the post Caitlyn Clark era. Also, like Deal, McKenna also missed almost her entire junior season when she went down in January with a knee injury in a loss to Ontario Christian at the Sabrina Ionescu SI20 Showcase in Concord.

At the time, Woliczko’s Mitty team was 9-0, coming off a second straight Nike Tournament of Champions top division title and a second consecutive TOC MVP award for her, and was already No. 1 in the nation and poised to take over the top spot in the Cal-Hi Sports next rankings had they beaten Ontario Christian a second time after soundly defeating the Knights 59-34 in title game of the top division at the TOC.

Woliczko also seemed poised to not only add a Cal-Hi Sports State Junior of the Year award to being named State Freshman and State Sophomore of the Year, but was also a top candidate for Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year honors. The injury came less than two weeks later and in only the second game after the win over Ontario Christian.

In a testament to her Monarchs’ teammates, after the loss where McKenna was injured, the Monarchs persevered. Mitty did lose two more games in nonleague play prior to the playoffs against nationally-ranked teams from back east, but Phillips and her girls were still the top team in Northern California without Woliczko and advanced to a third-straight CIF Open Division state championship title game. However, unlike the first two times when Mitty lost with McKenna in the line-up, this time she could only watch from the bench and cheer her Monarchs’ family on as Mitty lost to Etiwanda for the second consecutive year after losing to Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth three years ago.

Even as the NorCal champions, few analysts felt Mitty could defeat Etiwanda without Woliczko and while she did her best to root her teammates on, they played valiantly but in vain.

“I am confident to say that if McKenna were on the floor with us, there could have been a different outcome,” Phillips said in the press conference about the loss to Etiwanda.

Despite losing six seniors to graduation last year, Phillips returns a ton of talent, and if Woliczko can come back strong who knows about this year?

McKenna is making significant progress in her rehab regimen but whether she will be ready to go when Mitty’s season starts on Dec. 3 in San Diego is still unknown.

“It’s a great question,” Phillips responded when asked when Woliczko might be back. “We’re following McKenna’s feedback on how her body’s responding to rehab and recovery. She looks terrific and her linear speed is fantastic, but we’re really not trying to put a target date out there, because that puts unnecessary pressure on her.

“If anything, we’re trying to pump the brakes for her a little bit,” Phillips continued. “She will definitely play more games than she doesn’t play.”

Knowing she will start her college career at Iowa, Woliczko can focus on her senior season and her desire to bring home a first Open Division championship for Mitty after losing in its first four appearances.

Although Phillips has won six CIF state championships in a record 15 appearances, one of the greatest girls basketball coaches in history, a winner of a multitude of national accolades including induction in 2024 into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and the coach Woliczko commuted around 100 miles a day from her home in San Bruno to play for, has had an Open state title elude her.

“The goal this season is to win an Open Division state championship,” Woliczko said matter of factly, and that sentiment was echoed by her father Aaron Woliczko, the West Coast Conference Senior Associate Commissioner, Men’s Basketball & Sport Administration. He attends almost every game with his wife Erica Woliczko and 10-year old son Patrick, along with McKenna’s maternal grandparents, the Reynolds.

Family support has obviously been strong for McKenna, who before she got her driver’s license was chauffeured to school each day by Erica, and the subject of family came up more than once in the press conference.

“The relationships with the players and coaches I made and the family feel of Iowa was definitely a factor,” Woliczko remarked.

Deal was a factor as well. “We knew each other and played against each other in AAU and her being there and her personality was also a factor.”

Family feel and relationships were important but there was more.

“I believe Iowa is a perfect fit for me as I balance basketball, academics and an overall college experience,” Woliczko said. “The style of play is perfect for me as my versatility will be utilized at a high level. Meeting my future professor in elementary education has inspired me for my future studies and I cannot say enough about Iowa City. I just fell in love.”

Long before she was winning Cal-Hi Sports awards, and national accolades like a 2023-24 MaxPreps First Team All American selection, and the MaxPreps and SBLive National Sophomore and Freshman of the Year honors, Team USA Gold Medal and All-Star 5 (individual award) in both 2024 U17 and 2023 U16 international tournaments, and before she was poised to possibly become the all-time scoring and rebounder leader in Mitty history, she was already on a lot of radar screens.

We had heard about McKenna as an incoming eighth-grader from girls analyst Kameo Williams plus others. We missed her that summer because of her softball obligations, but we saw her the next spring at an all-star event hosted by NorCal Sports TV where she was easily the MVP of her game. Besides playing for the Jason Kidd Select club girls basketball team Woliczko was one of the top high school softball players in Northern California, and in that sport she followed in the footsteps of Erica, a standout softball player in high school in San Bruno and a star at the University of Pacific, where she met Aaron, a star on the basketball team.

We could see back then Woliczko was special, and even before she stepped onto the court at Mitty as a freshman starter, not surprisingly Pacific offered her a scholarship.

Besides her current 1,457 total points (21.4 PPG), 605 total rebounds (8.9 RPG) and 62 percent field goal shooting for her first two seasons plus the handful of games last season on teams loaded with talent, her numbers on the softball diamond were outstanding as well. The Monarchs shortstop hit .429 as a freshman and .380 as a sophomore.

“If she decided to play softball in college she would be a Major D1 recruit,” said St. Francis of Mountain View head coach Mike Oakland two years ago, and he’s the skipper of one of the top programs in the state the past few years, and had to face Woliczko in the West Catholic Athletic League.

Since the announcement last week, a lot of folks in the girls basketball community we have talked with, the buzz on social media, and even some questions at the press conference, have made comparisons to Caitlin Clark.

The bottom line is those comparisons are for others to think about but not McKenna.

“I’m a different type of player than Caitlin,” Woliczko remarked. “I’ve been playing post and down low the last three years but I think I’ll be a wing.”

One thing McKenna wants to do that Clark does well is connect from long range. “I’ve been working on shooting the three-ball.”

More than once in the press conference it was mentioned by Woliczko and Coach Phillips that McKenna would like to build her own “legacy.”

That legacy will have to wait because there’s a season to play, and McKenna and Mitty have some lofty goals, and a potential high school legacy. Mitty girls athletics is a pretty tough Mt. Rushmore to crack with those like Haley Jones, Kerri Walsh, Brandi Chastain, Danielle Robinson and others already on it.

After over five decades of covering girls hoops, we have “favorites” but we don’t play favorites.

However, we would like nothing better than to see McKenna Woliczko in contention to be the next Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year.

Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend