SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA — It’s difficult to fathom that McKenna Woliczko is only 15-years-old.
The Archbishop Mitty sophomore basketball phenom is just so skilled and polished and, of course, accomplished.
She was picked as national Freshman of the Year by both SBLive Sports and MaxPreps in 2022-23, while averaging more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Much of her numbers were piled up — and vastly needed — while UConn-bound point guard Morgan Cheli was out with an injury.
When Cheli returned, Mitty turned into a national power, winning 21 straight before losing an excruciating 69-67 buzzer-beater to Etiwanda in the CIF State Open Division finals at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
It was perhaps the only down prep moment for the springy, upbeat 6-foot-2 wing, but the loss hurt for more human reasons than missing out on hoisting a trophy.
“The biggest and saddest part of it was just the seniors leaving — that was their last game — and realizing this was my last time playing with them,” she said.
McKenna Woliczko (20), then a freshman, had 18 points and 10 rebounds in the state finals last season, only to fall short for one of the first time in her two-year prep career.
Photo: Ralph Thompson
Nine have returned this season, including Cheli, a McDonald’s All-American selection, and Woliczko has been even more dominant while playing far less minutes due to numerous lopsided wins. Mitty (23-0) has more than doubled their opponents score with 1,776 on the season to 829 for its opponents.
Through 48 career games, she’s averaged 20.6 points and 9.0 rebounds. In game 49 last week, a 91-55 victory over state-ranked Sacred Heart Cathedral and with Cheli out with an upper leg injury, Woliczko pumped in a career high 36 points to breeze past the 1,000 career mark.
On Tuesday, she had 29 points and 10 rebounds in a blowout win over Riordan and on Friday, a 74-40 triumph at St. Ignatius, she had 23 points, eight rebounds and five blocks.
She’s shooting better than 76 percent on the season and averaging 2.3 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.6 blocks. Mitty closes the regular season Tuesday at home versus Valley Christian.
Woliczko is one of 20 players up for the SBLive National Player of the Year award and the only sophomore. The rest of the list includes 15 seniors and four juniors.
But Woliczko, whose mom Erica (softball) and father Aaron (basketball) were collegiate athletes at the University of Pacific, has always had high aspirations. Rubbing elbows with the nation’s best — in whatever she tackled — was on her radar and within her range, even though she’s no 3-point shooting specialist.
Neither parent coached Woliczko in organized sports, but when her dad, the Senior Associate Commissioner of Men’s Basketball of the West Coast Conference, coached at Montana Tech, she often bounced the ball around the gym.
She also soaked up many of the messages her dad, unbeknownst to him, was passing on to his players and coaches.
One day when Woliczko was 8, Aaron noticed three sticky notes above her bed. Accented with a butterfly, they read:
“I want to be the best in the country.”
“I will be the best in the country.”
“I am the best in the country.”
McKenna Woliczko’s affirmation statement at age 8
Courtesy photo: Woliczko family
“It was her goal to affirmation statement,” Aaron said. “A mentor passed it onto me and I used it with my college teams. But I never shared with her to this point. She only heard me talk with others. She came up with this at a time she didn’t even know what she wanted to be best in the country at.
“She just had a dream.”
Coincidently or not, she now stars on the No. 1 team in the country. After Mitty won the Nike Tournament of Champions, regarded as the nation’s top tourney, in December, the Monarchs vaulted to the top spot and have remained while recording an unblemished record.
It’s been a dream season up to this point.
Just before the Nike Tournament title, Mitty coach Sue Phillips won her 800th game and was selected to be inducted into the 2024 class of Women’s Hall of Fame. Last month, Cheli was selected to the McDonald’s All-American game.
“It’s just crazy,” Woliczko said about being a key cog of the country’s best team.
Also a nationally-ranked softball player and starting shortstop on Mitty’s state-ranked squad, Woliczko admits that her driving personality — reflected in her relentless drives to the hoop — has led to anxiety and inner pressure.
McKenna Woliczko is equally adept with her right or left hand.
File photo by Darren Yamashita
She admits to getting overly nervous before games and not enjoying the moment. But that nervous energy and want to succeed has not adversely effected her performance. To the contrary, it’s mostly led to buckets full of success. Ridiculous amounts for young teen.
In a 45-minute interview last week with SBLive Sports, she revealed some of inner push to succeed and how Phillips has helped both push and pull her in the right directions. She spoke of her athletic idols, her love for her team, coach, parents and sports, her many nicknames, many dreams, friendships, as well as thoughts on Taylor Swift, the Super Bowl, last week’s record performance and an impactful favorite quote.
We came away thinking that the vast balance she shows on the court — always shoulder squared when taking an inside or mid-range jumpers — she revealed in her words and personality.
More than a dozen times she used the terms “cool” and “awesome,” reminding us she is just 15, filled with so much joy, youthful exuberance and optimism.
MITCH STEPHENS: There’s nothing but major highs in your high school career McKenna, so being a negative journalist, let’s go to the one low — the state championship loss last season to Etiwanda, a game your Monarchs were in control of most of the way. How long did it take to get over that loss?
MCKENNA WOLICZKI: I mean the loss is always going to be something in the back of my mind. I’m never going to forget that. It was definitely a hard loss, especially the way that it ended. But the biggest and saddest part of it was just the seniors leaving — that was their last game — and realizing this was my last time playing with them.
MS: Would you like to get another shot at Etiwanda?
MW: Whoever is the best team out of Southern California, I’m ready to play whoever that team may be.
MS: It’s quite apparent you have always been a young person with great, big aspirations. Is that something instilled in you? Or do you think you were basically born with it?
MW: Growing up, I’ve always had goals and ideas. I’ve tended to realize there are chances and there are opportunities for me to reach these goals. Coming to Mitty (she attended public school in San Bruno and commutes 40 to Mitty) was one of those. Mitty gives you opportunities to accomplish things to help you in the future. I’d say growing up, I always dreamed big.
With picture-perfect form, McKenna Woliczko is superb in the low block, in the mid-range and on the break.
Photo: Darren Yamashita
MS: Who were your athletic idols growing up and do you have any posters of them now in your room?
MW: I currently don’t have any posters in my room but more so just pictures of me with my friends. But as far as idols, I do look up to Lexie Hull of the (Indiana) Fever and Brianna Stewart and obviously (former Mitty greats) Haley Jones and Danielle Robinson.
MS: Did you get to meet Sabrina Ionescu last week at Carondelet’s Ionescu Showcase?
MW: I didn’t there, but I’ve met her in the past.
MS: You both share winning San Francisco Chronicle’s Metro Player of the Year award. What do you think of her, her game and influence on the game?
MW: I mean, wow, she’s just a great player and she’s gone through so much. She’s going to compete (against Stephen Curry) in the 3-point contest coming up. But she’s a great player, a great person and it was really fun to be able to meet her when I did.
MS: More Bay Area football roots — are you a 49ers’ football fan or more of a Chiefs and Taylor Swift backer?
MW: I am a football fan. I am a 49ers’ fan. I would say I like Taylor Swift songs but I’m not a Swiftie. For the Super Bowl, I’m going to have to go with the 49ers.
MS: You say you’re not a Swiftie, but I hear you have quite a few nicknames. Can you rattle off a couple?
MW: A lot of people call me a lot of different things. The one I hear the most is simply ‘Mc’ (sounds like Mick), which I’ve been called for so young. I have ‘Kenna and I also have ‘Ken. Those last two are mostly from softball. ‘Mc’ is mainly just basketball and family friends, but I’m hearing ‘Kenna more in the basketball world also.
MS: When was the first time you picked up a basketball? Was it love at first dribble?
MW: I’ve always grown up in a gym with my dad being a college coach. I was always surrounded by basketball. Growing up I played in rec leagues against the boys. I didn’t start playing competitive AAU basketball until the seventh or eighth grade. To be honest, it wasn’t love at first sight at all. It was not my favorite sport. But then I grew to like the game and enjoy it.
McKenna (right) with her dad Aaron at a kid’s camp in Montana.
Courtesy photo: Woliczko family
MS: Was softball your first love?
MW: I would say softball definitely was. I’ve been playing it competitively since I was 7. I just loved all sports growing up. Softball I loved. Also soccer, flag football, volleyball. I loved them all too. And basketball, I liked playing against the boys because they were my friends and it was fun. But then once I started playing like actual competition it was like, ‘ahhh.’
MS: Were you always a post-type player?
MW: I’ve always been a frontline post. I have always been taller than everybody. So that’s just what I was grown to do, but I’ve started to venture out at Mitty.
MS: Both your parents were college athletes. Surely you’ve seen your dad play (basketball at UOP). What’s your scouting report on him?
MW: He was definitely a shooter.
MS: You guys still play one-on-one or horse?
MW: No, we don’t play one-on-one. If we did, I’d probably hurt him. We just shoot sometimes.
MS: Your mom was a college softball player at UOP. Did she ever coach you as a youth?
MW: No, she was never my coach. Both of my parents never wanted to be my coach. They didn’t want that parent-coach-kid relationship.
MS: Glad they handled it that way?
MW: Yes, I’m very glad they took that approach. You have to learn how to be coachable and learn how to respond to coaches who aren’t your parents. It would be so different if your coach was your parent?
MS: Has it hit home that these are your final days playing with (McDonald’s All-American) Morgan Cheli? Does this make you relish these days, practices and games even more?
MW: I mean, it’s definitely going to be very upsetting, once done with playing with all the seniors. I love playing with all of them. Morgan is such a great player and a great person. She’s so fun to play with and she’ll definitely be missed.
MS: Can you describe what makes Morgan such a great player?
MW: She has great vision. She’s a very versatile player. She has the confidence to get you the ball no matter the circumstance. She trusts me to catch it. She’s a great facilitator, a great shooter. She’s great at everything she does.
Morgan Cheli (33) is a McDonald’s All-American
Photo by Darren Yamashita
MS: Coach (Sue) Phillips said you guys clicked from the start. Was it intimidating playing with her at first?
MW: I wouldn’t say it was super intimidating at first. It wasn’t just her. I was more nervous to play at Mitty with everybody. I was nervous I wasn’t even going to make the varsity team. So, being able to play with Morgan was definitely like ‘wow,’ this is how the game is supposed to be like. And that made it really fun.
MS: You’re not even done with your sophomore season — not close really — and you scored your 1,000th point recently, the same night you scored a career high 36 points. How was that?
MW: It was definitely very cool. Being able to reach that accomplishment — it’s not something that I ever thought I would be able to do — but then once it was an opportunity, it was like I’m really close, and once I reached it, it was so fun. To have my team support me throughout was so awesome. And then to also score a career high was super cool, especially against a great team like Sacred Heart Cathedral. They’re one of the better teams in the area, so to do it against them meant even more.
MS: It was another accomplishment during a truly accomplished season. Your coach (Phillips) wins her 800th game. Then she gets elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Then Morgan gets selected to the McDonald’s game. Then you guys win the Nike Tournament of Champions and are the unanimous No. 1 ranked in the country. Can you describe this current ride, playing on this team?
MW: It’s just crazy. Obviously with the coaches and the players, everyone is great. Everyone is always pushing you to where you need to be. It’s really cool to be on the journey with coach to get her record wins and still counting. And yes, to be on the No. 1 team in the country is such a cool accomplishment and to be recognized in that way is awesome. But we’re also just going one step at a time and we’ll take every practice, each day and every game separately and look to get better and progress as the season goes on.
MS: Can you describe coach Phillips?
Mitty coach Sue Phillips will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in April along with former WNBA stars Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus.
Photo by Sam Stringer
MW: As a coach she’s awesome. She’s always pushing you. She is trying to get you out of your comfort zone, so then when you’re in the moment, you know how to respond and react. She’s always your supporter, but she’s also your friend and family and will be there for you and is there to support you when you need it. She cares about you on the court, but also off the court.
MS: What’s the best advice she’s given you?
MW: The best advice she’s given me is to just smell the roses, because for me, I get very nervous and tend not to enjoy the moment or accomplishment along the way. She reminds me to enjoy everything along the way because one day it’s not going to be there.
MS: Yes, I think high achievers and thinkers such as yourself are prone not to enjoy those moments and quickly move on to the next feat. You think that’s been a challenge for you?
McKenna Woliczko dreamed big even as a sixth-grader
Courtesy photo: Woliczko family
MW: I mean, it depends. I try my best. I’ve always just been kind of nervous, but once the game starts then I’m able to kind of just forget about it and I’m just playing and then after the game, I’m able to enjoy it. I still look forward to the next thing.
MS: You certainly have many more ‘next things’ to both accomplish and enjoy. What I notice of your many successful images is you posing with good friends. Can you describe the social aspects and friendships you’ve built through sports?
MW: I think that’s a big reason why I enjoyed growing up and playing sports and why you should play sports. Is just the social aspect. You learn to be able to work with other people and then you also meet your lifelong friends. That’s something coming to Mitty that I’ve been able to meet my friends who are going to be my best friends in the future.
MS: Speaking of the future, do you ever start looking to the future in softball while you’re playing basketball? Get a little spring fever when the sun breaks out and the grass turns green? Do you plan to play softball again this spring?
McKenna Woliczko was an All-State shortstop for Mitty’s softball team last spring
Photo by Eric Taylor
MW: Yes, I’m going to be playing softball again this year. I’m excited to be able to play softball again — the seniors on that team were some of my best friends last year and took me under their wing — so that’s exciting … But right now it’s basketball season and we have so much more to accomplish. So I’m going to finish the season and then once it’s over, I’ll have Sunday off and then start softball Monday.
MS: Is there any advice or quote your parents have ever given that resonates?
MW: There’s a quote my dad always told me that I shared with the team last year. It’s about believing in yourself and goes: “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on its own wings.” That’s always stuck with me.
Courtesy photo: Woliczko family
