NCAA women's basketball champion Chloe Kitts returns to Washington to hold summer camp

Kitts spent half her childhood in Puyallup before leaving for Florida in 2014 - and ultimately winning a national championship with South Carolina in April

Washington native Chloe Kitts, who won an NCAA women's basketball title in April with South Carolina, puts on a camp in Sumner. / Photo by Todd Milles

SUMNER, Wash. - It's hard for Chloe Kitts to play the what-if game.

Especially now since it takes a backseat to the game that brought her an national championship - basketball.

Kitts, 19, grew up in Puyallup before moving to Florida with her family nearly 10 years ago - which gave her an opportunity to showcase her basketball at an international level, and ultimately landing a scholarship to South Carolina.

Last April, Kitts was a sophomore starter for the Gamecocks in the NCAA Division I national championship game. She had 11 points and 10 rebounds in the team's 87-75 win over Iowa to cap off an undefeated season.

In fact, Kitts' 11 points is the most a Washington native has ever scored in an NCAA women's championship game for a winning team.

South Carolina is solidly her current digs, and she started to make a name for herself in Oviedo, Florida. But Washington is where it all started - and where she started to learn the sport from her father, Jason, a 1996 Rogers of Puyallup graduate.

"(Being home) means a lot. I am from here. My parents are from here. I am raised here. Even though I moved to Florida, I still claim Washington," said Kitts, who agreed to put on two youth camps during her one-week return stay, including one Friday with some of the best high school players in the state at Sumner High School.

"I love working with Chris (Hyppa, event organizer). And I am just happy to put these camps on for these young girls who look up to me."

Kitts played for two area travel teams, including Rams Hoops - an organization her father co-founded and was also a coach.

But after Jason suffered a near-death respiratory health scare, and was out of work, Kitts' mother, Krystle (a 1997 Enumclaw graduate), got a job offer in Florida.

Very suddenly in August of 2014, the family of five packed up and moved 3,300 miles across the country.

"They had never been there," Jason Kitts said. "But with school starting in (early August), we had to make a decision."

Added Chloe Kitts: "I didn’t really know. I was like, ‘OK, it is hot and sunny there, so let’s go.’"

Kitts was the No. 17 ranked recruit nationally in the class of 2023 and had been on two Team USA gold medal-winning national teams when she decided to go play for Dawn Staley at South Carolina, enrolling in college early.

And in her second year, she won an NCAA title.

"Right when we won it, the (attention) was a lot," Kitts said. "But it has calmed down."

On Friday, Kitts was mostly a player, going right at a group of nearly 30 high school and early-college players in live scrimmaging.

Her role will be more instructor Saturday for her younger-age youth camp at Rogers High School. She turns 20 on Monday.

"I feel like it is getting more comfortable (running camps)," Kitts said. "I am introverted, until you get to know me."