Indiana Fever star guard Kelsey Mitchell has one of the most important career decisions to make after a sensational ninth season in the WNBA. The 30-year-old finished third in the league MVP voting after averaging 24.7 points per game and setting a new league record for most points in a season (1,086). Now, the ball is in her court as one of the premier offseason signings in free agency. But while the WNBA world is currently buzzing about whether Mitchell will stay loyal to the franchise that drafted her second overall in 2018 or finally change her team colors, Mitchell is focused on her own side quest.

On Monday, Mitchell announced on her Instagram story that sign-ups for her KelzHoop camp will open on Tuesday at Woodlawn Rec Center in Cincinnati. Her camp is open to preschoolers aged 3 to 5, and children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“KelzHoop takes being from the city of Cincinnati very serious. All I set to achieve means giving back to future generations. So, that’s what I’ll show up and do! CALLING out all of the youth for the Fall Season… Bring your child: to development, to learn, to build relationships, and to bond over the GAME we all love!” Mitchell wrote.

Mitchell was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied at Princeton High School, where she became a national standout and a five-star point guard prospect.

She later starred for the Ohio State women’s basketball team from 2014 to 2018. There, she built a legacy that is still admired. Mitchell was part of multiple First Team All-Big Ten (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), won BIG Ten co-Player of the Year (2015 and 2018), and earned unanimous BIG Ten Freshman of the Year in 2015. Mitchell was the second-leading scorer in NCAA history at the time of her graduation, and is still her program’s all-time leading scorer with 3,402 points.

While she has long left Cincinnati, the 30-year-old has never forgotten where she came from. Over the years, Mitchell has tried to give back to her hometown, and the KelzHoop Foundation is part of that.

While the exact date, timing, and venue are yet to be revealed, Mitchell held her annual youth basketball camp at Princeton High School on 22 November last year. The three-hour camp charged a fee of $100, which included a Nike camp T-shirt, refreshments, prizes, and Mitchell’s autograph. The training front focused on speed, strength, and agility exercises, as Kelsey Mitchell was accompanied by her brother, Oyler High School Men’s Basketball head coach Kevin Mitchell.

Basketball runs in the Mitchell family. After all, her brother, Cameron, is also a basketball player who currently plays professionally in Mexico. He is currently the top scorer in the CIBAPAC league with 32.0 points per game.

But her father, Mark Mitchell, has probably had the biggest impact on the four-time All-Star. After all, he served as an assistant coach for the Ohio State women’s basketball team from 2013 to 2018. With Mitchell coming into the team just a year later, her father basically oversaw her whole collegiate years and helped her turn into one of the best point guards of her era.

While Mark Mitchell passed away in 2024, he was recently named one of the greatest basketball coaches in Cincinnati high school history after leading Taft High School to its first state championship 15 years ago. “the BLUEPRINT. 💐🥺,” Mitchell took to Instagram Stories to celebrate her father’s accomplishment.

Mitchell obviously has a deep connection with Cincinnati in more than one way. But after nearly a decade with the Indiana Fever, Mitchell must have built a similar connection with the city and, of course, with head coach Stephanie White’s side. We already saw that connection building on the hardwood as well with Caitlin Clark, as the two went on to produce one of the greatest backcourt partnerships in WNBA history this season. Without Mitchell and Clark, it was evident the Fever would have had a tough time even qualifying for the playoffs.

Regardless of the familiarity Mitchell has built with the Fever franchise, she said in her exit interview that she plans to be “selfish” in free agency and decide what’s best for her. However, she added that “good chemistry on and off the floor” will factor into her decision.

As for the Fever, general manager Amber Cox made it clear that Mitchell’s value to the organization extends well beyond one strong season.

“She has a lot of equity in this franchise and has put in a lot of time,” she said. “She’s meant so much to us and has, obviously, had, arguably, the best season in the history of our league in terms of being a scoring guard. The numbers she put up were just spectacular, and you hear night in and night out from players across this league that the hardest person to guard in this league is Kelsey Mitchell.”

A long offseason awaits Kelsey Mitchell, but to her advantage, she is in a position to decide her future in the WNBA. For now, the Fever star will turn her attention to helping her hometown’s young prospects on the court.