Basketball has given Serena Sundell a lot over the years.
People that follow Spoofhound basketball know her as the greatest player in the history of Maryville High School and the 2021 Missouri Miss Show-Me Basketball. She has taken that skill to Kansas State University and developed into a First Team All-Big 12 point guard.
Sundell and her teammates have tried to take advantage of any opportunity they have to give back to their communities. For Sundell, that includes the team’s work in Manhattan, Kansas, as well as doing things around Maryville — she volunteered at the Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball youth camp earlier this summer.
“It is just really rewarding to be in the position that we are in, have the platform that we have and we try to do as much as we can,” Sundell said. “We obviously want to do things that are for a good cause, and things that we believe in and can relate to.”
One of the organizations that the Wildcats have worked closely with is Team Hally — an organization which is dedicated to honoring the memory of Hally Yust who lost her life at the age of nine in 2014.
Team Hally is a Christian organization with three missions — share God’s Word, love God’s people and encourage God’s people. More information on Hally Yust and Team Hally can be found on teamhally.org.
The Wildcats play in a Team Hally Game each season. This past year, it was a 67-65 win over BYU where Sundell had 14 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and no turnovers — including the two go-ahead free throws with 37 seconds left.
In May, the team had the chance to take a trip with Team Hally to Rwanda. The trip lasted for 10 days total.
“I’ve wanted to do something more significant with a foreign trip,” Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie said. “Those for college programs have turned into more like vacations I think. I just wanted something significant where we could make a difference hopefully and have an experience that would be eye opening and give a different perspective to our student-athletes. It was a great trip. It did all the things that I wanted it to.”
The entire roster and a majority of the coaching staff went on the trip including Mittie and his wife.
“It was a lot of fun,” Sundell said. “We stayed in a nunnery, so that was interesting and we had a lot of fun memories. Each day, we went to this village and we built a basketball court for them. We painted. We put up a fence. We put up goals. And we put up bleachers.”
The trips into the village were memorable for Sundell with one of the memories that sticks out being what was supposed to be a short trip to the school to meet some of the kids and give them some K-State souvenirs.
“We got to the school and there were just a whole bunch of kids lined up around this outdoor basketball court with these beautiful mountains in the background,” Sundell said. “There was a girls’ team that was out there warming up. They had their jerseys on and everyone was cheering them on. … We actually played up-and-down full-court for a little scrimmage and it was a lot of fun with all these kids cheering us on from the sidelines. So that was probably my favorite part.”
The main part of the trip was building a basketball court for the community as the players and coaches worked to get it finished in time to host a basketball camp for the children.
“On the last day, when it was finished, we had a basketball camp where we had probably 150 kids show up,” Sundell said. “We walked them through some different drills and stuff. Obviously there was a language barrier, but it was really fun to share the sport that brought us all together.”
The team also visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial — a place of remembrance and learning dedicated to the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda 30 years ago. They also attended a church service in the community they were serving.
“That was pretty interesting to see how much they value things that we take for granted every day,” Sundell said.
The team — which returns four 4-year starters — has been through a lot together over the years, but this experience is not one the players will soon forget.
“All of our players said the same thing when they came back,” Mittie said. “There was such joy and acceptance from the people in the village who had nothing — literally had nothing. … I think there was a lot of emotion and a lot of bonding that just came naturally though that experience.”
For Sundell, the word that stood out was ‘grateful.’
“It was a really eye-opening experience,” Sundell said. “I’m really very grateful that I got to go.”
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