Athletics are a huge part of Maya's life, and she's ready to blaze a trail for more women in the world of sports.
My story would be about the things I love — my family, my friends, and sports. I play basketball and softball. I’m starting volleyball and tennis. Sports are just what I love to do. They give me something I can work hard at and goals that I can work towards. I got hurt a few years ago and I wasn’t able to play for awhile, but that just motivated me even more to do my best. It hurt so much not to be able to play. Through a lot of hard work, motivation, and physical therapy I was able to get back out there.
I’m not quite sure what I want to be when I’m older, but I am loving the Sports Reporting course that I am taking right now at EXPLO. It’s making me think that I might really love to be a sports reporter or a sports analyst. In the course, we are learning how to take a sports-related topic and how to spin it into your own words — even if you only have 15 seconds to make your point. I love watching sports, mostly basketball and MMA. I’m a huge Knicks fan. They’re not doing that well right now, but I still love watching them.
I’m proud that I play sports as a woman. A lot of my friends don’t enjoy sports the same way that I do and sometimes it sets me apart. I am the only girl in my Sports Reporting course and sometimes I’m the only girl on a court or on a team. But I’ve gotten used to it and I just honestly love sports so much that I don’t even care about gender holding me back in any way. It’s something that I think about a lot. Sometimes it can be harder to enter a game or a club if I’m the only girl entering it. I like to think that I work hard, though. I use my free time here at EXPLO to come out onto the quad and just practice basketball and try to get better.
Ally Marcino