How Pa. teenager got Bueckers for promposal video
Sawyer Koretz didn't have a backup plan when he sent a direct message on Instagram to UConn women's basketball sophomore Nika Mühl last Thursday.
Prom was a little over a week away and he wanted to go all-out in surprising his girlfriend, Aleia Atherton, since this was the seniors' last high school dance together.
His surprise? Getting a personal video message from Paige Bueckers — Atherton's favorite player — to help ask her to say yes to Koretz's promposal.
“Every day I see people going around, have it posted everywhere, their promposals and everything and my girlfriend would be like, ‘When am I getting mine?' so it was really hard to surprise her,” said Koretz, a Wilkes-Barre, Pa. student. “I was just thinking of a good way that she wouldn't be expecting it. She's probably like the biggest UConn fan that I know and Paige is her favorite player, too . ...
“I figured I can do this because I won't have to worry about topping it next year.”
Atherton, 18, has grown up playing basketball. The sport has long been in her family. Her dad, Mark, coaches at a local high school in Wilkes-Barre and her grandfather Jim was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 because of his success coaching at both the high school and collegiate levels.
Atherton, like Bueckers, also plays guard and looks up to the Huskies' star sophomore. She and Koretz watched all of UConn's NCAA Tournament games together this season.
“I knew she would be like speechless, like I was scared she might pass out when I first played (the video),” Koretz said.
Mühl was one of four UConn players Koretz, also
18, tried reaching through Instagram that day.
He first took his shot directly with Bueckers, but she didn't respond. Then he tried Amari DeBerry, Caroline Ducharme and Mühl. Mühl was the only one to respond, writing back within two hours of him sending his message.
Mühl was happy to help and less than 24 hours later she sent Koretz a short clip of Bueckers.
“Hey Aleia, it's Paige. I just wanted to tell you that Sawyer is a really great guy and I think you should go to prom with him,” said Bueckers in the video.
Koretz was in the middle of shopping for a tuxedo with Atherton when Mühl sent the video. He had to quickly — and smoothly — make sure Atherton didn't get suspicious when he hid his screen from her to read the message.
“My girlfriend was holding my phone and as I was trying it (the tuxedo) on and I walked out, I saw a notification pop up and I was like, ‘That's Instagram. I have to get my phone back because she's gonna see,'” he said. “She's the biggest UConn fan so she would have known who Nika was and been like, ‘Why are you DMing Nika Mühl?'”
He knew he wouldn't be able to keep the secret for long. The young couple have been dating for about two and a half years and will be going to separate colleges in the fall.
On Friday, he made the asking official.
When Atherton walked into the living room, Koretz was there holding a sign that read “I could not think of a good promposal so I found someone to do it for me.”
He stood next to the TV and once she got closer, the video of Bueckers played on the TV.
“Hey, Aleia it's Paige,” Bueckers says in the video. “I just wanted to tell you that Sawyer is a really great guy and I think you should go to prom with him.”
Atherton stood still. Her mouth dropped. She brought her hand to her face and was in disbelief as her favorite player called her by name.
“First, it took her about a second to like realize who it was and realize what she was saying,” Koretz said. “And her face was just immediately red and looked stunned and then she looked at, looked back at the screen, looked at me, looked at the screen and she said, ‘Oh my God. No way. How'd you do that? Oh my God.' She was just so shocked that I was able to do that.”
Atherton, of course, said yes.
Koretz complied the video of Bueckers and of his promposal together on TikTok. As of Wednesday, his TikTok had 6,421 views and 87 shares. ESPN and ESPNW also reshared the video on Instagram with its post reaching 255,957 likes.