Manhattan Women’s Basketball Earns BSN Sports MAAC Community Spotlight Honors
Edison, N.J. (May 29, 2020) – The BSN Sports MAAC Community Spotlight will be a weekly feature of those giving back in an effort to make a difference in their communities. This week, the MAAC would like to highlight The Manhattan College women’s basketball team.
The Jaspers were 30 minutes from tip in the MAAC Championship quarterfinal game against Quinnipiac when the tournament—and the entire NCAA spring sport season—was cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The scene in the locker room was justifiably emotional, and, later, coaches, administrators and parents scrambled to get the team back home safely. But it wasn’t long before the Jaspers shifted their concerns to something just as important to their team as winning games: community service.
A HelperHelper top-five team for all of Division I women’s basketball, Manhattan devotes hundreds of hours a year to serving the Bronx community, including visits to local schools, where the Jaspers read to students, attend gym classes, and serve as mentors. When New York City schools moved to remote learning on March 15, so did the Lady Js.
“We were trying to brainstorm ways we could still stay connected and give the kids activities to do at home, and we came up with the idea of a YouTube playlist,” says rising senior guard Sini Mäkelä. “Even though we are not face-to-face, we wanted to make the kids feel like there was still a connection, that they weren’t alone.”
Each Jasper went to work creating their own video focused on a specific topic of their choosing. Mäkelä, at home in her native Finland, shows students how to make banana pancakes, while teammate Gabby Cajou demonstrates how to create at-home face masks. Courtney Warley and Sydney Watkins team up for a drawing lesson, while D’yona Davis discusses exercising while in quarantine. Each video is uploaded to a private YouTube playlist, and the team distributes one video per week to local schools for teachers to share with their students.
“During a time like this, it’s important to support each other,” says Mäkelä. “It’s a lot of adjustment for everyone, and we have to find new ways of connecting.”
To watch how the Manhattan Women’s Basketball team is giving back click
here.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 39
th year of competition during the 2019-20 academic year. Current Conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter's University, and Siena College.