Hanging on the gym’s wall, the 1000-point banner gained a new name last semester – Amanda Magri. She has scored almost 1100 points this fiscal year for Eastern Women’s Basketball, but her ego hasn’t inflated like a balloon for it. Amanda believes that the secret to her scoring success is teamwork.
“It takes five people for one person to score,” Magri, a senior, explained. “It takes someone to box out, make the pass, execute our offense.”
“She’s really devoted to what she does,” Coach David Storms said of Magri. “One of the best players I’ve ever coached.” She averages 20 points per game and dons jersey number 15.
A few summers ago, she was living in Wilmington and working at Urban Promise. Amanda used her love of basketball to really connect with the Urban Promise children.
The experience was very inspiring to her. She is majoring in Youth Ministry with a minor in Urban Studies.
“Amanda is a very devout, sincere Christian, and a lot of it shows in the way that she plays and in the way that she approaches things,” Storms said.
Magri described a high school mentor who encouraged her basketball skills as well as her faith.
Her assistant coach had made her “work all day until [her] arms were going to fall off”, and he influenced her faith as well as her work ethic. “He taught me how to be a witness on the court,” said Magri.
Her faith is the foundation of her on-court (and off-court) mindset.
“When you see players like her, doing what she does, you can understand why she is successful,” Storms said.