By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
Between name, image and likeness, eligibility and gender equity, the world of college athletics are rapidly changing. One recent shift in NCAA media coverage involves Lesley sophomore guard Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel — a Division III basketball player who just became the first woman with one arm to score in a collegiate game.
After being cut from her high school team her senior year, Sinaman-Daniel was under the impression that getting recruited to play basketball in college would be a pipe dream. After two days of crying, she decided to channel her heartbreak and emailed coaches around the country in hopes of acquiring an offer.
“I thought to myself, I could do this in college,” Sinaman-Daniel said in an Associated Press article. “What’s stopping me from doing this in college? So, I started emailing hundreds of coaches and it didn’t really matter what division it was. I was just trying to get a possible maybe or even better — a yes.”
Making the shot from near the three-point line, Sinaman-Daniel has utilized unique training methods that allow her to complete the same fundamental skills as her teammates without being able to use “standard balance and ball management techniques.”
To add to the celebration, Sinaman-Daniel scored her second basket on her birthday, seven weeks after her first field goal, which added to her spearheading season.
“We’re showing that we can both win and have really high quality players that might not look like everybody else on our team,” Lesley head coach Martin Rather said in an NBC article.
Sinaman-Daniel originally accepted an offer from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, but entered the transfer portal after two years and has since competed in more individual practice sessions than any other player on the team — ultimately contributing to her groundbreaking basket against Vermont State on Feb. 11.
Because NCAA regulations are constantly changing, this is a huge step for college athlete diversity and representation both in the media and on a smaller level within athletics departments.
Being a college athlete comes with many connotations and expectations of how you’re supposed to look, and oftentimes, there is a multitude of backlash within the media and athletic departments when a person doesn’t fit that mold.
Because it is rare to see representation of non-stereotype conforming bodies in college athletics, Hansel Enmanuel is another one-armed basketball player who attended college at Northwestern State and now plays for Austin Peay.
Enmanuel’s arm was amputated at age six after an accident, his coach describes him as “the biggest inspiration in college sports,” according to the same Associated Press article.
Sinaman-Daniel’s monumental basket with the Lynx not only facilitates momentum towards removing stereotypes, but also showcases the ability of physical differences.
Both Enmanuel and Sinaman-Daniel showcase the inspiration that comes behind being a college athlete with physical differences and represent the importance of removing the stereotypes behind the way college athletes are supposed to look.
