Brent Clark is often asked by other parents of young kids about his recommendations, how he and his wife Anne nurtured Caitlin to become the  basketball star that she is.

His answer? Get your children engaged with as many different activities as possible, sports or otherwise.

Beyond basketball and soccer, Caitlin at some point during childhood was involved with piano, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball. As her parents look back now, all of those activities elevated certain skills, both mentally and physically.

But basketball and soccer clearly became Caitlin’s two favorites.

She played on co-ed teams in both sports, starting at age 5. In soccer, she was always the best player on the field – boy or girl. Any soccer parent knows the clusters that can form on the field with very young players. Caitlin was the one who would seize possession of the ball and never give it back, outracing and outmaneuvering defenders to score … repeatedly.

“It was one of those deals where you had to tell Caitlin to stop scoring so many goals,” Brent said.

Young Caitlin, ever the competitor, was perplexed at her dad’s request.

“She didn’t quite understand that whole concept,” Brent said, with a laugh. “(In her mind), the object is to score.”

Scoring – now there’s a shocker, huh? – quickly emerged as Clark’s top skill on the soccer field.

One of the many qualities that separates Clark from her basketball competition is her size. At 6 feet tall, she’s a taller point guard than most defenders who are fast enough to keep up with her. She pairs that height − which helps her shot to avoid being blocked − with supreme lower-body strength.

That leg strength was always a huge soccer weapon.

“She was powerful,” said John Sheridan, another one of her youth coaches. “A powerful player.”

When Clark was an early teenager, Sheridan was the executive director for Sporting Iowa, a partnership between the West Des Moines and Johnston/Urbandale soccer clubs. Clark and Maya McDermott, a Johnston product who now stars in basketball at Northern Iowa, were the club’s top two forwards. McDermott’s game had more finesse. Clark had the raw shooting and scoring power.

“I’ve been doing this for 23 years,” Sheridan said, “and I’ve not seen a female soccer player strike a ball like Caitlin. … There have been some better players, for sure. But in terms of ball-striking, she had unbelievable technique.”

Every coach interviewed for this story recalled some kind of can’t-believe-it soccer shot that Clark pulled off.

At age 13, Clark was playing in a state cup final. The game was locked in a 0-0 tie.

“And she just took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored two wonder goals,” Moffat said.

Clark’s dad recalled one winning goal, maybe around age 14. In the final minutes of a tie game, after a referee’s whistle, she scrambled to grab a loose ball and set herself up for a direct kick, a good 40 yards from the goal.

Clark’s shot hit nothing but net.

(Where have you heard that before?)

“It was one of those deals where she just cranked it up over a whole line of defenders, over the goalie and into the net. It was stunning,” Brent Clark said. “It was like, ‘What did she just do there?’ It was remarkable. Like I tell people, she’s never afraid to take the last shot or the last kick. That’s the best thing about it. Whether you make it or don’t make it, it’s the desire to take it.”

Scoring in soccer requires more than a powerful shot, though.

“Her coordination and balance is unreal, similar to how she was as a soccer player. You constantly have to pick your angles … make quick decisions in tight spaces,” Sheridan said. “She’s really, really good at that, especially as an attacking player. It’s the hardest thing to do in the game, score a goal. And she was really good at it.”