Local product to continue promising WNBL career with Perth Lynx

Goldfields basketball product Mackenzie Clinch-Hoycard this week officially signed-on for a fifth WNBL campaign for the Perth Lynx, ahead of the 2024-25 season.

The 191cm forward is viewed as a vital cog in the squad’s efforts next season to go one better after losing the 2023-24 grand final series in three games against the Southside Flyers.

Clinch-Hoycard last season made 26 appearances for the Lynx and has across the years become a leading role model for youngsters from regional WA aspiring to play in the WNBL.

“Mackenzie has grown significantly both as a person and as a player for the Lynx over the last four years,” Lynx general manager Samantha Macpherson said.

“She is a tenacious, skilled, and personable WA athlete and we are exhilarated to have her back this season, showing young WA girls there is a very real pathway into the Lynx from country WA.”

Clinch-Hoycard, 25, rose through domestic ranks in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Basketball Association with CBC .

Her ambitions to play oversees were realised in 2016 when she signed on for a four-year US scholarship at the University of Hawaii.

She became a contracted player for the Perth Lynx late in 2022 after originally joining them in 2020 as a development player.

In February, she visited Kalgoorlie-Boulder with Lynx teammates Amy Atwell and Ash Hannan for Regional Community Clinics.

“Going to Perth (as a teenager) basically every weekend wasn’t easy, but I wouldn’t change my journey for anything because I believe it taught me a lot,” Clinch-Hoycard said.

“When I was growing up, I had a lot of people tell me that I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I wanted to achieve because I was from Kalgoorlie.

“But if you want something badly enough, you’ll figure out a way (because) where you come from and where you were born has nothing to do with it.”