It’s been seven years since Mackenzie Holmes last played a game in a Gorham Rams uniform.  

“Don’t make me feel old now,” said Holmes, laughing as she reflected on how much time has passed.

Since then, she’s enjoyed an illustrious career at Indiana University — which spanned five seasons and resulted in four trips to the NCAA Tournament, as well as a Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award her senior year — and more recently, a season spent playing overseas in the WNBL in Australia and a month in the WCBA in China.

View 6 photos

The 6-foot-3 Holmes knew she needed to log some additional professional basketball reps before playing in the WNBA again. She was waived by Seattle last May but was re-signed about a month later and played in 10 regular-season games and one playoff game for the Storm.

“I needed to get that professional experience under my belt,” Holmes said. “… Having those two experiences overseas, I think, gave me a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge, just going into year two with the Storm and knowing what they expect and understanding the franchise and what they’re looking for, and just trying to be a great representative of wearing that uniform.”

Seattle signed Holmes again in April, and the Gorham native is prepped for round two with the franchise that drafted her in 2024. She missed her rookie season because of knee surgery.

“We have some of those vets, but we also have a really exciting young core with Flau’jae (Johnson), Dominique (Malonga), Awa Fam coming in late, so it’s just been really cool to see how all those pieces, younger and older, have gelled together,” Holmes said of the Storm’s roster. “It’s all about getting to know each other, building that chemistry, which only comes with time and getting to spend some time together on the court and off the court together.”

While overseas, Holmes tried to keep things in perspective by focusing on her Australian (Geelong Venom) and Chinese (Henan Phoenix) teams rather than fixating on the future.

“I tried not to think too much about the WNBA season because it was months and months away, so just focusing on getting better each and every day, doing what I needed to do for my team, just getting used to playing basketball again at a high volume,” Holmes said.

Holmes finished the WNBL season as the Australian league’s second-highest scorer (21.8 points per game) and fourth-best rebounder (9.6 per game).

Holmes, a 2019 Gorham High graduate and two-time Class AA state champion, is just the second Mainer ever to play in the WNBA, joining Lawrence and University of Maine legend Cindy Blodgett, who played for the Cleveland Rockers and Sacramento Monarchs from 1998 to 2001. 

“I know Maine’s a small state, but the fact that I’m able to be at this level and knowing that they still have my back, too,” Holmes said. “I have people from home check in all the time, so it’s really, really special to me that I have those relationships built … that they’re still watching and supporting me, it gives me that extra sense of motivation to just keep going so I can continue to try to be an inspiration and someone that they can look up to.” 

Holmes isn’t sure if there will be any watch parties taking place around Gorham at 10 p.m. Friday when she and theStorm take on the Golden State Valkyries in their season opener, but she hopes she’ll see some familiar faces in the crowd two days later when the team travels to Mohegan Sun Arena to play the Connecticut Sun.

“I’m hoping to see some of my friends and family there actually at that game, because that’s about as close as we can get to Maine,” Holmes said. “So hopefully they’ll watch Friday and then they’ll make the trip up on Sunday afternoon on Mother’s Day to watch.”