Kelsey Mitchell, the standout point guard for the WNBA Indiana Fever and a FIBA AmeriCup gold medalist, comes from an athletic family.
Basketball runs in the blood of WNBA star Kelsey Mitchell, a passion that she inherited from her athletic parents.
Kelsey Mitchell was born on November 12, 1995, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to late father Mark Mitchell and mother Cheryl Palmer Mitchell.
Furthermore, Kelsey’s parents first met each other while attending Eastern Kentucky University, where her late father, Mark, was a standout lineman and her mother was a basketball star.
‘Kelsey’s mother, Cheryl Palmer Mitchell, who transferred to Eastern Kentucky from Mississippi Valley State, set records in college and led her team in several victories.
Her 260 rebounds during the 1988-89 season still rank seventh in the Eastern Kentucky University single-season record book.
Likewise, after dating for years, the couple tied the knot in 1991 and were happily married for nearly 32 years before Mark Mitchell’s unexpected demise on March 26, 2024, at the age of 56.
Although Kelsey Mitchell’s parents, Mark and Cheryl, never pushed sports on her and her siblings, the entire Mitchell family is natural-born athletes.
Basketball has always been the love language of the Mitchell family.
Kelsey, her twin sister Chelsea, and her elder twin brothers Kevin and Cameron grew up playing basketball in the backyard of their suburban Cincinnati home.
While Kelsey and her elder brother Kevin initially played soccer, they gave up on their football journey to focus on Kelsey’s basketball career.
Kevin gave up soccer when he joined his father at Taft High School, a school that didn’t have a soccer team, and Kelsey gave it up in the eighth grade after witnessing a gruesome injury at a soccer tournament.
Being former athletes themselves, Kelsey Mitchell’s parents, Mark and Cheryl, supported and guided their kids in their sports journey, leading them to succeed in their respective careers.
Kelsey Mitchell’s First Basketball Coach Was Her Late Father, Mark Mitchell
The late Mark Mitchell was his daughter Kelsey Mitchell’s first coach. Growing up, Kelsey had a lot of fun training with her father, Mark, whom she lovingly called Coach Mitch.
Furthermore, their special bond made practice feel less like work and more like family time.
“Her dad had pretty much taught her anything and everything about basketball, Sometimes, it’s so funny when you ask about their relationship, she’ll call him, so you know what she’s talking about basketball, she’s like, ‘Coach Mitch’ So it ain’t dad. It is Coach Mitch, like ‘Coach Mitch, I got a question for you,” said her mother Cheryl
Indy Star
Although Kelsey Mitchell’s parents ended their playing careers after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, her late father, Mark, continued his sports journey as a basketball coach, whereas her mother, Cheryl, focused on her career as a social worker.
Furthermore, Kelsey and her siblings attended and played basketball at Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School in Cincinnati, where their late father, Mark Mitchell, taught physical education and was the boys’ basketball head coach for 11 years.
Kelsey practiced with her father, Mark, and his players while attending Robert A. Taft High School.
Similarly, when Mark Mitchell began his career as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Ohio State University in 2013, his twin daughters Kelsey and Chelsea joined the College’s women’s basketball team, the Buckeyes, to play under their father’s guidance.
Mark was with Kelsey and her sister for their entire four-year career at Ohio State, coaching them.
Under Mark’s guidance, Kelsey became a three-time Big Ten Player of the Year and broke several records.
She finished her college career as the second-leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history.
While Kelsey began her professional career with the Indiana Fever in 2018, her late father continued his coaching career as the teacher and head boys basketball coach of Taft IT High School.
During the last four years of his life, Mark Mitchell was the head men’s basketball coach at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Kelsey Mitchell’s older brother, Kevin Mitchell, is the boys’ basketball coach at Oyler High School in Cincinnati. He recently led his team to win their first Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference-Blue championship.
- The Indiana Fever designated Mitchell as a core player, giving the team exclusive rights and guaranteeing her a supermax contract for the 2025 season after she entered free agency in 2025.
