Cornell University senior women’s basketball player Megan Hughes had an interesting way of making sure Head Coach Dayna Smith remembered her when Smith came to watch her play at an AAU tournament – she broke her leg.
“I traveled down to Florida to see her play in the summer time before her senior year,” said Smith. “There were a lot of coaches, including several Ivy schools that were looking at her. I remember sitting there in the front row of the gym and there was a shot taken down the opposite end from where I was. Megan went up for a rebound in congestion with about three other people around her and she came down very awkwardly and screamed. As she tried to get up, I saw the bottom half of her leg and foot remain on the ground and the top half her leg, right around the mid-shin rise off the floor. Coaches and fans were gasping – loudly! It was a gruesome injury! Her shin snapped in half. I can still see it to this day in my mind.”
While the injury stuck in Smith’s mind, it was what happened afterwards that really made Smith interested in having Hughes become a member of the Big Red.
“I remember a lot of coaches getting up and leaving to go to other games because the ambulance was coming and it was going to be a long injury break,” explained Smith. “But I stayed and watched how Megan composed herself and how her family was there to console her. When I called her a few days later, she was as positive and happy on the phone as she had been before the injury. I knew right then that I wanted her on our team. A lot of schools stopped recruiting her because of the injury, but the way she handled the injury and rehabbed back from it is why we recruited Megan. I wanted the toughness, composure and positive outlook that she displayed.”
During her time with Cornell, Hughes has relied on that toughness, composure and positive attitude to help her as she has seen her role change from a starter to a role player.
Of her career and her ever-changing role with the Big Red, Hughes explained; “It’s been filled with ups and downs. It’s kind of been a rollercoaster. Coming out of high school as a state champion and I think I went 22-3 when I was a freshman in high school and I came here as a freshman and my first year we went 3-24. I think I had a really rough freshman year but I think it served me well though because as a senior it means a lot more. I know how much it means with every win we accumulate. For instance, Harvard and Dartmouth, I remember going up to Harvard and Dartmouth and we would get blown out by 40 and I was on the court while that was happening. Now, I see how far we’ve come and maybe I’m not getting the same amount of playing time, I’m not the first or second person off the bench, but I can really appreciate what it means to beat them and what it means to be at the top of the league.
“In my career, I’ve seen all aspects. I’ve been a starter, I’ve been relied upon, I’ve been the big girl inside, I’ve been the last person on the bench, I’ve been in the middle. I kind of feel fortunate in that way because I think I’ve gotten a lot more out of the experience. I can relate to each and every one of my teammates. It makes my relationship with every single person stronger and more special.”
Hughes relied on her positive attitude and her natural ability to forge relationships as she began planning for the next phase of her life – finding a job.
After working at an internship at the University of Virginia’s Sports Promotion Office this past summer, Hughes solidified her desire to work in the sports industry. And it was through a friend that she found herself attending the WNBA All-Star game and sitting with some of the league’s executives.
“I had a friend that was interning for the NBA and I was so jealous of that, but he got me tickets to the game and he sat me next to his colleagues. I was just chatting them up during the game about what they do and how I can get into it and the guy next to me said ‘you should try the Associates Program.’ It’s a program that the NBA offers to recent graduates were you get entry-level marketing experience.”
Since September, Hughes has been going through a series of phone interviews, and just last month, she headed down to the WNBA offices for one final interview. During the interview, she relied on yet another personal relationship as Donna Orender, the president of the WNBA, happens to be Cornell volunteer coach Faye Young Miller’s former teammate back when both women played for the Women’s Professional Basketball League in the late 1970’s.
Hughes landed the highly selective job and will begin the position this summer.
“I don’t think it’s really hit me yet but that’s pretty much the dream,” said Hughes. “I don’t know too many little girls that didn’t want to be a part of the WNBA when they grew up. Then when I got to college I realized that maybe my court skills went as far as they possibly could, but I still wanted to continue, so this is a way to do that. I’m very excited for it.”
Hughes hopes that upon completing the one-year position, she will be placed somewhere else in the organization, either higher up at the WNBA offices or with one of the teams.
“It’s kind of full-circle and its weird how that happens,” said Hughes. “When I broke my leg down in Florida and I just thought everything was falling apart and I wasn’t going to get to play college basketball but I came right back. You dream and dream and you play and go to college and play basketball and you want to be a part of the WNBA, and maybe it’s in a different way, but I appreciate it.
“I think its rare for people to have the opportunity to do exactly what they’ve always dreamed of and now I’m kind of right there at it ... I’m grateful for it.”