San Bruno’s McKenna Woliczko named to Team USA U17 squad

The softball finale finished out quite a week for Woliczko, a San Bruno native, who over the weekend was in Colorado Springs, Colorado for tryouts with the USA Basketball Women’s U17 National Team. The 6-2 forward was named to the final 12-woman roster Sunday. It is the second straight year Woliczko has made the final cut. She played for the Team USA U16 team last summer.

“I was super nervous just to be trying out … just because it’s a big accomplishment to play for Team USA,” Woliczko said. “So, I just went into it to play my game, and that ended up working out for me.”

Ranked in the top 20 girls’ basketball recruits for the Class of 2026 by SB Nation, Woliczko has already impacted the varsity ranks, and then some. Sure, Mitty has long been a Central Coast Section power, capturing 32 all-time section crowns. Woliczko has anchored CCS titles No. 31 and 32, and has earned West Catholic Athletic League Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year honors both seasons, claiming the honor outright as a freshman in 2022-23, and this season sharing co-Player of the Year honors as a sophomore with teammate Morgan Cheli.

On the national stage, Woliczko enjoyed a smooth transition to Team USA U16. The team won gold at the FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championships in Merida, Mexico. This year, the U17 team will be coached by Meg Barber, who has run the women’s basketball program at New York University since 2018-19. The team will travel to Leon, Mexico for the FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup opening July 13.

Tryouts at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center took on a special meaning this year, with the hustle and bustle of athletes preparing for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games, beginning July 26 in Paris. The USA Basketball Men’s U17 National Team was also at he facility holding tryouts.

“It’s really cool to see the diversity of all the people and all the different sports,” Woliczko said.

Woliczko said she was happy to return home right after the tryouts. This wasn’t the protocol last year, when the 12 players who made the 16U team stayed in Colorado Springs for 26 days until traveling to Merida, Mexico.

The Team USA tryouts did coincide with CCS Open Division softball finals, costing Woliczko the chance to take the field Saturday at West Valley College for a championship showdown with St. Francis.

“From the beginning of softball season, we knew I was going to have to leave for trying out for Team USA,” Woliczko said. “So that was already known, and I told [Coach Megan Yocke] about that, and once I got the invite from Team USA, it was like: ‘Yeah, I’m going.’”

Mitty fell 7-2 in the CCS softball finals. St. Francis ace Kate Munnerlyn pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, and took a scoreless tie into the fourth. The two teams traded two-run rallies before St. Francis took the lead with a go-ahead two-run rally in the fifth, before breaking it open with three more runs in the sixth.

In Mitty’s two previous CCS playoff games, Woliczko combined to go 3 for 5 with two RBIs in wins over Los Gatos and Hollister. The sophomore hit .380 with a slugging percentage of .560 on the year.

“It was very sad knowing I wasn’t going to be there for the championship game,” Woliczko said. “But everyone knew why I had to miss the game. And, yeah, it was for a good reason.”

The original content of this story has been edited.