NCAA fans talk family ties and memorabilia

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -As the first day of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament wrapped up, fans enjoyed the sights and sounds of Albany dressed to match their favorite teams. Some say their own family is on the court.

Basketball is life at the Marotte home. Their daughter AJ playing with the Oregon State Beavers brought her to the NCAA Tournament.

“You’d had no clue at say, eight, ten years old that it was going to be what it was. Your kid starts to stand out and it just happens. Nothing we forced. Nothing we were after. Just she fell in love with the game,” described Vince Marotte.

One group is rooting for Sonia Citron of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish because they played with her in New York. “From third grade to sixth grade, I was playing with Sonia. We’ve been following her ever since so we knew she would be making it big someday,” said Trish Murtagh.

Both the Marotte and Murtagh families told NEWS10’s Anthony Krolikowski that wearing the colors and logos of their teams is part of the fun. The dads added that they liked to collect trading cards when they were kids which are now growing in popularity for college women’s basketball.

“Tons of our customers have their daughters that play AAU volleyball, AAU basketball… And we’re seeing an explosion in those sports. You have a growing market with a growing superstar.” explained Jeffrey Finnigan, the owner of Finnigan’s Sports Cards.

That superstar is Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Finnigan’s Sports Cards said of the few trading cards made of Clark, a one-of-a-kind has sold for more than $13,000 online.

Another card store, The Locker Room 78, added that it’s not too late to pull your own Clark card. “This is 2023-2024 Bowman U; You can get Caitlin Clark autos (autographed cards) in this product so this is popular at the moment. This seems to be flying off the shelf. Sold ten in the last week,” stated the owner, Scott Santelli.