SAN FRANCISCO — Kate Martin is a typical midwesterner.

When she’s not coming off pin down screens or fighting for rebounds, the Valkyries’ second-year forward can be found fishing on a lake or on a golf course practicing her swing.

But while Golden State’s most popular player was known as a small-town, blue-collar player on University of Iowa teams that featured Caitlin Clark, she has quickly fallen in love with the Bay Area.

“I think it’s amazing,” Martin told the Bay Area News Group. “I love living in a city. I love how there’s so much to do here. Obviously it’s not the midwest, which is just a bunch of cornfields, but I’m enjoying it here.”

Tonight at Chase Center, Martin will play Clark, her college teammate and friend, when the Valkyries face the Indiana Fever. The Iowa alums still lean on each other for guidance even though they’re no longer on the same team.

“It’s been nice to have one of your best friends go through a similar experience and we’re in the same business,” Martin said. “It’s been really nice to be able to talk to one another about our successes, but also our struggles at times too. I feel really grateful to have her.”

Martin grew up in Edwardsville, Ill. — a small suburb outside of St. Louis — as the youngest of three athletic children. Her father, Matt Martin, played football at Western Illinois and was the head football coach at Edwardsville High from 2012 to 2021.

For Kate, a manic competitive spirit was developed at a young age.“I fostered competition. There was a lot of reward-based self esteem in our house,” Matt told the Bay Area News Group in a recent phone interview. “Whether it was sitting and playing left-handed catch in the living room, and if anybody dropped it, they had 10 push-ups. Or I would go up to the high school gym and bring all three kids, and we would play 21, and the winner of the last game always got to sit up front with dad and the losers had to sit in the back.”

Martin had a storied prep career at Edwardsville. She led the Tigers to a 122-6 record and never lost a home game.

“Kate just has a will to compete,” Lori Blade, Martin’s basketball coach at Edwardsville, told the Bay Area News Group. “That comes from her family and her upbringing. Not all kids have that today. I think that’s an old-school trait. It’s really carried her throughout her career without a doubt.”

Martin’s play didn’t go unnoticed by the top college basketball programs in the midwest. The likes of DePaul, Illinois, St. Louis and Wisconsin all held out hope she would choose to continue her basketball career at their school.

But there was only one place that Martin had on her mind. It took only one visit to Iowa’s campus during her junior year of high school for Martin to commit to becoming a Hawkeye.

Martin missed her first season at Iowa in 2018 while recovering from an ACL tear and played sparingly when she returned to the court a year later. But after Clark’s arrival in 2021, Martin and Iowa were elevated to the national spotlight.

After falling to UConn in the Sweet 16 in Martin’s third year, Iowa reached its first national championship game in school history in 2023, falling to an all-time great LSU team. A year later, in Martin’s final season, the Hawkeyes reached the national final again but lost to South Carolina.

Behind Clark, Iowa became the most popular women’s basketball team in the country. The national final in 2023 between the Hawkeyes and LSU drew more than 9 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. It was the most-watched NCAA women’s national championship game until the final a year later between Iowa and South Carolina drew more than 18 million viewers.

Though Clark was the superstar that transcended the sports world, Martin was the glue of those Iowa teams. In her final season, she averaged a career-high 13.1 points and 6.8 rebounds and often defended the opposing team’s best player.

“That Iowa team changed the face of women’s basketball for hopefully a long time,” Matt said. “They caught the attention of America and who would have guessed?”

After finishing at Iowa, Martin submitted her name for the 2024 WNBA draft. She attended the league’s draft night ceremony in Brooklyn to support Clark, who was taken first overall by the Fever, and Matt was among those who expected Indiana to pick Kate in later rounds.

But when the Fever selected Ohio State’s Celeste Taylor, who plays the same position and has a similar style of play, in the second round, Martin figured her dreams of being drafted had disappeared because she did not field many calls from other teams prior to draft night.

But three picks after Taylor went to Indiana, the Las Vegas Aces — a team that had future Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase on their staff — selected Martin.

In her one year with the Aces, Martin played spot minutes as a shooter off the bench. She averaged 2.6 points per game on 35.5% shooting beyond the 3-point line.

Nonetheless, Nakase and Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin saw potential in Martin and selected her in the WNBA expansion draft. While she has had her ups and downs this year, Martin appears to have taken a step forward in her development.

Martin has become a consistent cutter in Nakase’s offense after taking just more than 70% of her shots from beyond the arc last season with Las Vegas. Her best game came against the Minnesota Lynx on June 1 when she scored a career-high 14 points.

Nakase praised Martin for her work ethic even when her shots weren’t falling in Golden State’s first few games.

“I’m just trying to ride the wave right now and enjoy it,” Martin said. “There’s a lot of highs and lows in basketball, and I just really love playing with this squad, so I’m learning a lot, and going to continue to grow.”

Valkyries fans have welcomed Martin with open arms.

It’s not uncommon to see fans walking the concourse donning Valkyries violet and Iowa gold. Each time the 25-year-old makes a basket at Chase Center, the crowd erupts. Martin even has a dedicated fan base called the ‘Martinis.’

“I can’t really explain it. She’s my daughter,” Matt said of Kate’s popularity. “When she comes to town, we play golf or we go fishing. … I don’t know what it is, but people seem to like her. They root for her and that’s just so nice to see.”

Valkyries acquire ex-Fever guard

The Valkyries announced the signing of free-agent guard Bree Hall, who was the 20th overall pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft by Indiana.

The 21-year-old Hall, who was cut by Indiana after the preseason, was a two-time NCAA champ with South Carolina who averaged 5.8 points per game in 147 games.