‘Literally in awe’
Young fans across the country overjoyed by UConn tickets for Christmas
When it’s below freezing outside in Pipestone, Minnesota, 12-year-old Amyra Mahik can often be found in her parents’ garage mimicking the moves of her favorite women’s basketball player: UConn’s Paige Bueckers.
Mahik, who’s been playing basketball since she was 5, studies videos of Bueckers’ highlights on YouTube and watches all of UConn’s games. She’ll look up the opposing team’s roster before tipoff and provide live commentary during the game over the phone with her best friend, Avery.
So it was no surprise Mahik started crying Christmas morning when she found not only a UConn sweatshirt and leggings under the family tree, but also tickets to see the Huskies in person on Feb. 2 against Creighton in Nebraska.
“I was very very surprised,” Mahik said. “I was
literally in awe. It was one of the best moments I’ve ever experienced.”
A video of Mahik’s Christmas Day reaction was shared on social media by her dad, Mark. That video was shared Christmas night on Twitter by espnW, which has over 288,000 followers. Bob Bueckers, Paige’s father, responded: “Please DM me, so we can send a little present!”
Sure enough, Mark was later contacted on Twitter by Paige. The video also caught the attention of the UConn women’s basketball Twitter account.
“It was pretty crazy,” Mark said.
“It was a moment that I never thought I’d experience,” Amyra said of Bueckers reaching out. “Like I didn’t think that my favorite basketball player of literally all time would reach out and see my face and know who I am.”
Amyra was not alone. Young UConn fans across the country received tickets as Christmas gifts this year, and the excitement was captured on social media. For many, those games will be their first time seeing UConn in person.
“I almost started crying, to be honest,” Josie Crabtree said.
Crabtree, 13, lives in Jamestown, Tennessee, less than two hours from one of UConn’s longtime rivals, yet the Huskies are her favorite team. She was completely surprised when she was gifted a UConn shirt and sweater along with tickets to one of the team’s most anticipated games of the year: at top-ranked South Carolina on Jan. 27. She also received Huskies socks in her stocking.
Bueckers is Crabtree’s favorite player. She changed her own basketball jersey number from 42 to 5 and has her mom give her the “Paige Braids” hairstyle (two braids pulled back into a high ponytail) before every game.
“The first time I heard Paige Bueckers’ name, I was like, ‘Who in the world is that?’ and her eyes just got really big, and she said, ‘You don’t know who Paige Bueckers is, Mom? It’s Paige Buckets now,’ ” said Bridgett Crabtree, Josie’s mom. “UT, Pat Summitt and Geno have the big rivalry. So a lot of people give her a hard time about that.”
Bueckers is expected to be out until mid-to-late February recovering from a December surgery she had to fix a tibial plateau fracture and a meniscus tear.
Ten-year-old Brooklyn Steffy is excited for her first UConn game no matter whether Bueckers is healthy enough to play or not. She received tickets for UConn’s game at Xavier on Feb. 18.
“They’re really good teammates and they’re really good at the game and they have a really good coach,” said Steffy, from Pittsburgh. “I’m hoping Paige will be back in. I’m not for sure she will be in though, but overall, I just want to see how they play in person and see all the other players out there.”
Whether they see Bueckers play or not, getting the chance to observe how UConn plays in person will allow each girl in the stands a chance to learn lessons on the court as they continue their own basketball careers.
“She’s a really good passer, so it’s pretty cool to try and learn the type of passes that she does, like behind the back and stuff like that,” Mahik said regarding what she’s learned from watching Bueckers’ highlights. “When I’m older, now I want to go to UConn or something that’s big like that and I want to be able to be the player that other girls look up to because I look up to Paige and I want to be the person that girls like me look up to.”
For some girls, the joy of getting to see UConn waits in limbo as the team recovers from its current COVID-19 pause and attempts to reschedule previously canceled games.
Katie Wirtz, a 13-year-old from Des Plaines, Illinois, got tickets to see UConn at DePaul on New Years’ Eve; however, the game was canceled days before due to COVID issues in the Huskies’ program.
Despite the cancellation, Wirtz said she cried when she got the tickets along with a UConn T-shirt.
Beth, Wirtz’s mom, said her daughter told her she’s OK with missing her own basketball team’s practice or games if the DePaul game’s rescheduled date conflicts.
“If she’s not watching her own game film, I literally will hear whistles and I know she’ll be watching some sort of UConn game, whether it be this year, last year — she goes back and finds old UConn games,” Beth said. “It’s a little bit obsessive.”
Alaina Sweet, who got tickets to UConn’s game at Villanova on Friday also waits as the Big East attempts to reschedule the Huskies’ latest cancellation.
Friday’s game was canceled Tuesday afternoon due to UConn’s ongoing COVID shutdown, marking the fourth straight UConn game to be called off due to the current surge of the virus.
Sweet, from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is already accepting the team will be without Bueckers when she goes to the game. The Villanova game will be the first women’s college basketball game she’s attended and no matter if and when it happens, she’s excited to see the players she looks up to.