JASPERS TALK
by Rose Brennan, A&E. Editor
Pamela Miceus is a junior mechanical engineering major who plays on Manhattan College’s women’s basketball team. Originally from Haverstraw, N.Y., Miceus joined the team as a walk-on during her sophomore year. She was awarded a scholarship to play as a forward for the team over the winter intersession.
The Quadrangle: What was [the walk-on] process like?
Pamela Miceus: Basically when I came to campus my freshman year, the coach approached me about walking onto the team but I had come the school just to be a regular student. I had always kept the idea in the back of my mind, but I would be focusing on my school [because] mechanical engineering is pretty difficult. In the spring semester, after I realized that I was doing pretty well … I did pretty well my first and second semester, I felt comfortable that I could handle both basketball and my major. So then I approached the coaches and had a conversation with them in the spring, and they allowed me to start … playing pickup in the spring, and in the fall I started doing regular practices with them.
TQ: So until recently, you weren’t on scholarship?
PM: No, so starting my sophomore year, I was on the team just as a regular walk-on, also just a regular student, and then for this semester, I will be on scholarship.
TQ: How were you informed that you received the scholarship?
PM: So we generally do a lot of team activities, sort of like team bonding [and] having fun within all the stress that [is] associated with basketball. So … the coach made up that we were going to play “Deal or No Deal.” We’ve even done spelling bees and a bunch of ridiculous activities, so it was nothing new for us. She’s pretty creative. So if you know how “Deal or No Deal” works, you have good prizes and less-valuable prizes, and what everybody wanted to win was a … night out to the movies. That’s snacks, that’s hanging out with your teammates, that’s a lot of fun. So that’s what we were all hoping was behind the paper. The game just goes, and even during the game, I was like, I’m fine with anything, honestly, any prize is really good. But in the end, I chose to use the paper that was the mystery box that we picked in the beginning. I chose the mystery box and opened the mystery box and [they] told me to open an envelope, and I’m like, “We’re going through so much just to get a movie,” because that was the only option left. And then after I opened the envelope, it said that I was on full scholarship, so that whole moment was just … complete off-guard, like I realized and my teammates realized all in one moment, and just everybody lost it. You could see it all on the video [posted to the women’s basketball Instagram page], the video was very overwhelming for me. I was pretty moved in the moment.
TQ: So you felt [overwhelmed]?
PM: I felt like it wasn’t real, at first. But I just … [I wasn’t] confused, but … it’s kind of like something that I was working hard for like a really long time and it was something that could happen or couldn’t happen. But if I hadn’t gotten the scholarship, none of my attitudes toward this program would have changed. It’s just like getting an award for all the hard work that you’ve done is just like … everything kind of meets at the same time. It was very overwhelming, I would say, as a moment.
TQ: What are your hopes for the rest of your season?
PM: So right now, we’re 2-12, unfortunately. So my goal for the rest of the season is to really turn it around. Of course, we’ve lost some players due to injuries, and we have a lot of different variables but my goal for the rest of the season is to use what we have, to do what we have to do to get the wins that we need to prove with all the hard work we’ve been doing, post-season, pre-season [and] throughout the season. And all of these games have been close, like not finished, so my goal for the season is to finish the season with wins, with hard work, with doing whatever we need to do, because our goal for the end of the season is always to be playing on Monday for MAAC Championships. Whatever we need to do.