Note: Hope Athletics will profile student-athletes from all 22 of its varsity sports throughout the 2015-16 school year and highlighting their pursuits and achievements in the classroom.
By Eva Dean Folkert
The game is knotted in a scoreboard-red tie, time falls down on the clock, and all around the DeVos Fieldhouse the competitive tension is thick, making even the Go Orange concession workers nervous. Out on the basketball floor though, a calming presence commands the attention of the Hope College women's basketball team, and nerves start to settle.
Senior captain Maura McAfee has gathered her teammates around her, and in a voice that is even and clear, with a comportment that is sure and experienced, she delivers close-game directions as if she were matter-of-factly telling a lost driver which way to go.
Calm over calamity, composure over angst, confidence over doubt – this is McAfee's modus operandi when leading the nationally ranked Flying Dutch to another victory. It turns out that this is her method of operation in the classroom, too.
A biology major with a 3.66 GPA, McAfee intentionally tackles the gathering of scientific knowledge much in the same way she intensely boxes out to rebound: she clears out space, gets in front of the task, collects the hard-earned acquisition, and moves forward. It makes sense then that the unflappable McAfee, a reveler in the hard work of body and mind, has focused her up-turned sights toward a career in physical therapy.
"I appreciate being able to play the game I love," says McAfee, whose hometown is Midland, Michigan. "Not everyone gets to do that because of injury or some other circumstance. Physical therapy is a profession that gets people back to doing the things they love – whether that is playing a sport or simply being with their families, living their lives. I'll love being able to give others that opportunity."
Head coach Brian Morehouse says, "Mac has spent a lot of time researching the profession and doing internships. This has helped her develop a plan for her career path. And, Maura is not average in anything. Once she sets her mind to something, she won't be denied. She will be fully prepared to assist patients mentally, physically, and emotionally. It is who she is."
McAfee, in her own words, is also "very analytical" while remaining a "go-with-the-flow kind of person." She intuitively sizes up situations, looking for academic and athletic possibilities and solutions that are within her reach. She also naturally operates on the mindset that, even in difficult times, even when those possibilities and solutions are tough to find and solve, the best mood is a light mood.
But don't be fooled by her easy-going persona, says Morehouse, because "beneath that calm demeanor is a burning competitive desire that makes her the player she is" – the one who just passed 1,000 points in her career (only the 14th Hope women's basketball player to do so), the one who most wants to break the Hope career rebounding record. With over 800 caroms to her credit thus far, McAfee has a realistic shot at undoing the record that Kristin Carlson '95 Woiteshek has held since 1995.
Hope, unbeaten at 6-0 overall, returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 12 at Alma. Tipoff is 3 p.m.
"I pride myself on rebounding," admits McAfee. "Ninety-seven percent of rebounding is hard work and the willingness to do it. The other three percent is chance. I may not get the rebound every time but at least I've worked hard in the attempt.
"Basketball has shown me what it means to be passionate about something, even if you don't like it all the time," she continues. "It has shown me how to embrace the process of doing things right."
The little girl who grew up shooting at the Little Tykes hoop in the driveway is now a young woman who feels most like herself in a gym, she says. And the young woman who feels most at home in the gym will become the young professional who helps others feel most at ease during physical activity, she hopes. The cool circle of basketball and life can indeed be a process, a process of doing and making things, and people, be all right.
Click below for links for previously published Hope student-athlete profiles:
Women's Cross Country: Julia Stock
Men's Cross Country: Matt Rolain
Football: Dean DeVries
Women's Swimming & Diving: Sarah Sheridan
Women's Golf: Britni Gielow
Women's Soccer: Anna Krueger
Volleyball: Jayne Kessel
Men's Soccer: Sam Barthel
