California Golden Bears star Mia Mastrov

California Golden Bears guard Mia Mastrov has been sharing her off-season activities on social media.

The $363,000 NIL-valued Mastrov (as per On3) recently posted a clip of herself on Instagram stories playing football on the beach and catching a cutting pass in the sand.

How Mia Mastrov left high school early to join California?

Mia Mastrov was a basketball star for Miramonte, being named first-team All-Northern California. But during the pandemic, with the uncertainty over whether there would be a basketball season, she was convinced to leave high school early to join California.

As per Lamorinda Weekly, Charmin Smith, the Golden Bears’ coach, she convinced Mark Mastrov, Mia’s father to allow his daughter to join the team early despite the prevailing conditions.

“Mia’s father and I had some conversations early on prior to COVID really being a big deal. When we learned that Mia would not lose a year of eligibility were she to begin her college career in the spring, I knew that we would love to have Mia come early to Cal to get acclimated to our program. That’s when I called her dad and he said that I could bring it up with Mia,” Smith said.

Mastrov took online classes and worked to be able to accumulate enough credits to graduate early.

She started five of California’s last six games of the shortened season as a 17-year-old. In her first game in college basketball, she scored 20 of the team’s 51 points against Utah to show her quality straight from high school.

Mia Mastrov detailed her thought process for leaving high school early to join the Bears and said:

“If we were guaranteed to have a season at Miramonte, it’s likely I would have stayed. It was a blind decision as to whether to stay or go on to college early, knowing that at California, I was going to have a good experience and good knowledge for the future.” [H/T Lamorinda Weekly]

“When I had all my credits to be able to graduate early, I got a call from Coach Smith. She knew that I had been planning on being able to graduate early and it all came together from there,” she added.

Last season, she averaged 2.7 points on 31.5% shooting from the floor and 25.7% shooting from beyond the arc, 1.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists.

Four years later, Mia Mastrov is one of the most recognizable faces in women’s basketball and has accumulated a combined following of 1.23 million followers on TikTok and Instagram.

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