Former Prior Lake High School basketball coach Mike Gidley had his eye on a spunky second-grader who would be on the floor shooting hoops just for fun during breaks in a game. He knew then that McKenna Hofschild had what it took to be a fantastic hoopster and hoped in later years he would have the opportunity to coach her.

Gidley actually did coach Hofschild for a decade as the young Prior Lake player transitioned from a Prior Lake Athletics for Youth team to being a leading scorer for the varsity Lakers. He’s followed her accomplishments through her college athletic career, and finally last week, in her role as a graduate assistant in the University of Connecticut’s 12th women’s national basketball championship, beating South Carolina 82-59 for the title.

“Wow, at first I couldn’t wait to see McKenna play when she got older,” Gidley said, adding that he still considers her today to be one of the top five athletes he coached in his 27-year career. “McKenna’s scoring ability was due to hard work. She was a pit bull who was motivated by doing well.”

Hofschild’s storied basketball career picked up when she was in junior high. As a seventh-grader, she was competing on Prior Lake’s freshman and sophomore team, averaging 30 points per game, according to Gidley. Hofschild said it came as a surprise when her coach pulled her aside and said she may not be playing with her regular team much longer.

A year later, she was moved to varsity, facing some opponents who eventually played Division I ball.

“Being involved in PLAY was a huge part of my development,” Hofschild said. “And I was very blessed with

family members who put me in a good position from the start. My family members were my biggest cheerleaders.”

She estimates the total points she scored for Prior Lake was in the neighborhood of 2,400. That number does include her headline-grabbing performance when playing against Park Center in 2018 during which she broke a state record that stood for 37 years. In that single game, Hofschild scored 63 points.

On to college

Hofschild graduated from Prior Lake High School the next spring and spent her freshman year in college at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. She finished her collegiate career at Colorado State, averaging nearly 19 points per game while recording 779 career assists.

She became part of UConn’s winning season this year working with the Huskies women’s team as a graduate assistant while earning her master’s degree in sports management.

“It was an adjustment after being a player for so long,” Hofschild said, but notes that working with the championship team has been rewarding. Not only is she building additional leadership skills that will serve her well in her future career, it’s allowed her to stop and appreciate the positive experiences in the moment.

The former Prior Lake resident expects to return to Minnesota in the coming weeks and will visit with her parents, Chris and Annette Hofschild, who recently moved from Prior Lake to Eden Prairie, along with her older siblings, Jake and Kelly. The trip will probably include connecting with her former Prior Lake teammates she considers life-long friends. She said those relationships made her experience playing basketball at Prior Lake most memorable and rewarding.

“Being on the team was a huge part of my development at that age,” Hofschild said. “I’d tell those starting in a sport to have fun with it and connect with people who can push you to do better.”