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2009 – 2013
The South Bend ground: Skylar Diggins was born in South Bend on August 2, 1990, and her high school career — at Washington High School, a 102–7 team record, 2,790 points, the 2007 state championship, Indiana Miss Basketball and the Naismith and Gatorade national player-of-the-year awards — stands in the Famous People section of this history and is cross-referenced here rather than retold. What belongs to this section is what she did next: she came home to play, fifteen minutes from the gym she had filled in high school, and the program's second age is inseparable from that decision.
The Notre Dame career: Diggins scored 2,357 points — third on the program's career list, behind only Arike Ogunbowale and Hannah Hidalgo — and took Notre Dame to three Final Fours and two championship games. She was the Big East player of the year in 2012 and 2013, won the Dawn Staley Award in 2013, and became the program's first two-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the nation's top point guard, in 2012 and 2013. The record book credits her at her graduation with thirty-two school records held or shared, and with a combination no Notre Dame player of either sex had reached: 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 steals.
The professional: Tulsa took her third overall in the 2013 WNBA draft. She became a seven-time WNBA All-Star and a six-time All-WNBA selection, the league's Most Improved Player in 2014, and at the Tokyo Olympics of 2021 an Olympic gold medalist — the second Irish player to win one. The City of South Bend wrote her place in its own record in Special Resolution No. 4985-22, reciting the two civic firsts: the first South Bend native taken in the first round of the WNBA draft, and the first South Bend native to win Olympic basketball gold.
Sources:
- The Famous People section of this history — the South Bend birth, the Washington High School career and honors.
- University record book — the career scoring list (2,357, third); the Lieberman and Big East awards; the thirty-two records; the 2,000/500/500/300 combination.
- WNBA and Olympic records — the 2013 draft (third overall, Tulsa); the All-Star and All-WNBA counts; the 2014 Most Improved award; the Tokyo 2020 gold.
- City of South Bend, Special Resolution No. 4985-22 — the two civic firsts, as the resolution recites them.