Ripping a case of Panini Prizm WNBA cards with my daughter was pure joy

My daughter Isabella and I have shared a love for sports since before she could walk.

We bundled her up and hit the highway for road trips as long as five hours just to see my son play high school football around the state. Even at a young age, she showed interest in and an excitement for sports. She was always an excellent little trooper for each excursion.

Last year, she started her very own football career in a local church flag football league that I helped coach. She took it right to the boys, quickly becoming one of the stars of our team (and the league), scoring touchdowns in every game and playing great defense. She became a fan favorite as the only girl on our team and one that really excelled between the lines.

I was fortunate to coach her first year of organized baseball (T-ball) last season. Now we've transitioned to softball for this coming summer. She has a knack for the sport, is a natural athlete, a quick learner, a hard worker, and one of the best and brightest players on the team.

Where she's had the most fun and shined the brightest so far is on the basketball court. 

Her love for roundball runs deep. She wants to dribble around the house incessantly and get better, learn more about the sport and just be a student of the game. She played basketball in the daycare program at the YMCA and we just finished up her first season of Upward Basketball, where she shined on the court.

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In her very first game, as her coach, I just wanted her to get out on the court, have fun, make a bucket or two, and be a good teammate. Well, by the end of the game, she had scored 14 points—the other team had 6 total points. She handled the ball for us most of the year and her squad pieced together an undefeated season.

At 5 years old, it's all about learning the basics, having fun and being a good teammate. She's really excelled at all sports since day one.

Anyone who's even remotely familiar with sports understands the countless life lessons that can be learned in and around the games. From taking personal accountability, being reliable, responsible and contributing positively to the outcome of an event bigger than yourself, sports are such a beautiful teacher and a wonderful part of life.

We spend a lot of time together on our shared love of sports, from watching games in front of the TV or phone, to throwing ping-pong style batting practice in the house to getting a silent indoor basketball to dribble for hours on end, or walking down to the baseball field a few blocks from our house to take legit BP in the cage. These moments further build our unbreakable bond and fill my heart with joy, gratitude, and pure happiness.

Izzy has seen MLB games in Philly and Pittsburgh, watched Penn State Football at Beaver Stadium and seen countless local games, supporting her brother, cousins and classmates.

She also has become my card show buddy. From setting up at shows or just shopping at our local mall show to bigger shows such as the Philly Show and even The National in Cleveland this past year, she really enjoys the hobby.

I had told myself for months leading up to the WNBA Prizm release that I wanted to buy a case, crack it open, and go Caitlin Clark hunting.  

Thanks to the WNBA Rookie of the Year and (to a much lesser degree) company, the WNBA has seen a bit of a resurgence and spike in popularity this past season and, I must say, I'm a big fan of CC and her game. I try and impart the wisdom of success stories such as hers on my kiddo and borrow the work ethic, traits and tendencies of the greats. I think Caitlin is as rock solid of an example as there is in the women's game today.

I had my eyes on Prizm WNBA Basketball long before it came out (a first for me). I wanted to crack open a case and when the opportunity presented itself at my LCS, I decided to grab a case of blaster boxes. And just as my daughter's basketball season ended, we decided to celebrate by opening a case together, side by side, and chronicling our success.

What started with the bright idea of opening one blaster box a night for the better part of a month. Well, that quickly changed to opening multiple blasters every night and we ended up going through the entire case in less than a week.

My daughter and I alternated picking boxes to open, and she seemed to have a far hotter hand than I did.

We had some basic ground rules to start. I wanted her to enjoy the cards as much as possible. But I decided to open most of the packs first, but as soon as we went through the cards, she got to handle and keep whatever ones she wanted. I wanted her to respect the condition and handling of our cards, too. We immediately put the nicer cards into sleeves and top loaders for her to enjoy. She even practiced on some cards that we would have otherwise just donated or given away.

In one of our early boxes, we ripped into a pack and saw the back of Caitlin Clark's base rookie card staring at us, so that got us excited. As we flipped the pack over to open it, we saw the card sitting just on top of the Clark card was a Cracked Ice version of her second base card in the set, so that was quite a pack.

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These box openings generally took place on our living room floor after dinner and after all of our daily responsibilities were completed.

We definitely hit our fair share of Angel Reese cards, including some Blue parallels, Cracked Ice parallels, and some other fun cards.

Interestingly, there were multiple occasions where Caitlin was found on the back of the packs and no matter how many times it happened, that made it even more fun and interesting to dig in.

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My daughter's name is Isabella, so she took an immediate liking to one of the WNBA players named Isabelle (Harrison) and wanted to keep all of her cards aside.

We also hit our fair share of Los Angeles Sparks rookie sensation Cameron Brink's cards, which is never a bad thing.

Although we went on a pretty big Caitlin Clark drought on the second half of our case, we did pull the cool blue parallel along the way.

We finished with eight Clarks, five Reese cards, seven Brinks, and one inspired 5-year-old.

Regardless of the box score and tabulations of our break, it was priceless time spent each evening with my daughter enjoying the hobby we both love.

— Tony Reid works in a card and hobby shop in central Pennsylvania and collects RCs of star players in baseball, basketball and football. You can reach him at @tonyreidwrites on all social media platforms.