Meet Jac Caglianone’s fiancee, volleyball player Elli McKissock. She’s a pro, too
When Jac Caglianone got down on one knee in December and proposed to his girlfriend, Elli McKissock, he posted a photo of the moment on Instagram.
“I can’t wait to marry you. Forever can’t come soon enough!” he wrote.
Bobby Witt Jr., himself a newlywed as of the offseason, and other Royals players congratulated him.
So did the folks at Topps, who commented: “This should be a card.”
(If anyone could make that happen, it would be Topps.)
What we know about the newest of the Royals WAGs comes mostly from her own social media posts — she has 52,000 followers on TikTok and another 29,000 on Instagram — and news of her standout sports career at the University of Florida.
McKissock is 23, according to her YouTube channel, where she last posted three weeks ago. He is 22.
The Star reached out to McKissock but didn’t get a response. She was in Kansas City on Monday, one day ahead of Caglianone’s debut at The K against the Yankees.
Don’t tell his new teammates.
She calls him Pookie.
Cheering for a Midwest team is new territory for this Florida native. She and her parents and assorted relatives went to Royals spring training this year in Arizona, where she bought team merch at the gift shop.
“Something new,” she wrote on Instagram.
“New chapters!!” Caglianone responded.
She was with her parents in St. Louis last week when Caglianone made his Royals debut at Busch Stadium, writing on Instagram: “Thank you Jesus for your constant faithfulness throughout every step of this journey. Happy debut day, my love. You deserve the world. Go Royals.”
She’s a Florida Gator at heart
The daughter of Matthew and Kerry McKissock is a native of Windermere, Florida, an affluent lakefront community in the Orlando area that celebrities such as Shaquille O’Neal, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods have called home.
She comes from a sports-oriented family with allegiances to the Florida Gators.
Her father, who is a dentist, played football at The Citadel and graduated from the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry. An uncle played football for Brown University.
Her dad also coached son Jack in football, basketball and baseball and followed his daughters — Elli and Matti — around the country as they both played college volleyball. Matti played for Georgia Tech and UCLA.
The McKissock sisters played volleyball together at a young age, earning accolades as they led successful seasons at their high school, The First Academy, a private Christian school in the Orlando area.
Was it foreshadowing?
The school’s nickname is Royals.
Even though basketball was her first love, McKissock, encouraged by her sister to play volleyball instead, committed to play the sport for the Florida Gators.
Though it’s not known where she and Caglianone met, it was likely at Florida, where they were standouts in their individual sports.
During an exceptional, five-year career at Florida, McKissock set numerous volleyball records — career digs (2,147) and career sets played (534) among them. She ranked in several other categories, including career matches played and career aces.
She graduated in the spring of 2024 with a degree in telecommunication.
In April she signed with the Orlando Valkyries, a two-year-old team in the Pro Volleyball Federation, the leading pro volleyball league in the country. She was assigned to the team’s practice squad.
Their season ended in May, which should give her ample time for following the Royals, which she’s already been doing. She was in Chicago watching the team beat the White Sox on Sunday.
Now she’s an MLB WAG
The spotlight invariably shifts to the wives and girlfriends of standout pros. (Taylor Swift ring a bell?)
One famous baseball case study: Kate Upton, the Sports Illustrated model who dated, then married, pitcher Justin Verlander, becoming arguably the most famous of recent MLB WAGs.
Upton has said she had no idea what to expect from being a baseball WAG.
“Being a baseball wife is absolutely insane, like this schedule is wild, it’s so long. I didn’t know,” the 32-year-old Upton said last summer on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast. “I accidentally fell in love. I had no idea that there were this many games.”
The new group of Royals wives and fiancees this season have been more active on social media than most of their predecessors. McKissock doesn’t seem to balk at sharing her life on TikTok and Instagram. Yet.
That’s how the world knows she calls Caglianone “Pookie.”
And that she loves her mom’s chicken Alfredo.
And that she’s not quite sure yet how to dress for cold weather.
And that she ordered new luggage in Royals blue.
Last year a TikTok she shared of herself with Caglianone, looking all googly-eyed at her, earned more than 2 million likes.
She’s a member of the club now, one that’s been busy over the last few months celebrating engagements and new babies.
Maggie Witt, wife of Royals star Bobby Witt Jr., and other wives have left welcoming messages on McKissock’s social media.
She’s already out there getting to know the city.
On Monday, she posted a photo from inside Messenger Coffee Co. downtown.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
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