State High basketball standout Kyla Irwin signs with UConn

Kyla Irwin had been waiting for this day — eagerly and anxiously — for nearly 13 months.

Really, she had been waiting a lot longer.

But with the stroke of a pen and the assistance of a little technology, the State College senior made it official early Wednesday morning. She has her scholarship in writing to attend the University of Connecticut, and become a member of the Huskies’ women’s basketball team.

Irwin is set to join, arguably, the most successful women’s team of any sport in the country with its 10 NCAA titles under coach Geno Auriemma.

“It’s so surreal,” she said. “To know that it’s finally here, it’s amazing. I couldn’t be more excited to play for a team like UConn, to play for the coaches, and play with girls like them. It’s everything I always wanted.”

With the window officially open on signing day for National Letters of Intent at 7 a.m., Irwin took care of business and made everything official as soon as she could, then headed off for her classes at State College Area High School.

“You watch your child go through everything that she went through,” said her mother and the Lady Little Lions’ coach, Bethany Irwin, who grew up in Connecticut and still has relatives there. “It has always been her dream, her passion to play there ... It has always been her hope to shoot for the highest you can shoot for. All those practices, extra practices, extra rebounding sessions that we would go to, ball handling, all that, has paid off for her.”

The younger Irwin has had UConn basketball posters on her bedroom wall since fourth grade, she figures, and was telling college coaches even when she was still in elementary school she wanted to play for the Huskies.

She visited the school last October, and made her verbal commitment not long after. With a little more than a year to think about it since, did she ever second-guess herself?

“One-hundred percent sure the whole time,” Kyla Irwin said. “Not a second crossed my mind that I don’t think I can do it. It has literally been my dream, and when my dream is right there, why would I turn it down?”

Last winter she watched the Huskies roll through another impressive season and win the program’s third straight national title. Some of the women on that television will be her teammates next fall, and she found herself cheering more enthusiastically for the Huskies than she had before.

“I can’t wait for that to be me some day,” said Irwin, who averaged 20 points, 13 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.3 blocks per game last season on her way to earning first-team All-State honors.

“Kyla is the kind of kid that we have taken great pride in getting over the last 30 years,” Auriemma said in an email statement. “She is a hard-working, high-energy kid and has skills that allow her to play more than one position. She knows how to play the game. She is exactly the kind of kid that we have looked for at UConn and the fact that she has some connections to Connecticut is an added bonus. We are really excited about having her and our family has part of our program.”

She played her final match with the State College volleyball team Tuesday night, falling to North Allegheny 3-0 in the first round of the PIAA tournament. Next Monday, practices start on a new basketball season, her last for the Lady Little Lions and with her mother showing the way.

After a lifetime growing up with the game and her mom at the program’s helm for more than two decades, a new adventure awaits as she follows her dream.

“It’s been her life,” Irwin said. “For 18 years she’s been in that gym. It’s crazy. It’s 18 years of riding busses, 18 years of all those girls that have come through the program and looked up to — they baby-sat her.”

Wednesday was the start of the early signing period for a number of sports. Also making commitments were fellow Little Lions Seth Erdley, who will swim at St. Bonaventure, and Hannah Shields, who will play softball at Delaware State.

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 10:45 AM with the headline "State High basketball standout Kyla Irwin signs with UConn."