Silver Lake athlete committed to ESU after scary crash brought change of heart
SILVER LAKE, KS. (KSNT) - Silver Lake girls' basketball player Makenzie McDaniel committed to Division I Abilene Christian on April 4, 2023.
A month later, she was driving to her younger sister's basketball tournament when a small animal ran out in the middle of the road. McDaniel swerved, lost control of the car and rolled two times.
She left the accident with a concussion and needed stiches in her thigh. It also opened her eyes to what she holds important in life.
"It kind of put things into perspective and I knew I wanted something closer to home," McDaniel said.
Abilene Christian is located in Abilene, Texas - about a nine-hour drive from Silver Lake. After the car accident, nine hours was too far away.
"What if that happens when I'm all the way out there and I'm all by myself?" McDaniel said.
McDaniel reopened her commitment shortly after. At a basketball camp that Emporia State attended, she immediately felt the energy from the Hornets.
Emporia State has been taken over by new head coach Brian Ostermann, and McDaniel says the new regime impressed her.
"Coaching was very high on my list, it was the most important to me," McDaniel said. "I really loved Coach O, I feel like the coaches mean so much. That's who you're going to see every day."
McDaniel's new home in Emporia will be just an hour away, rather than nine. While distance played a factor, the Hornets still felt like the right fit.
"When I went there for Elite camp, it just felt different from all the colleges I had been to," McDaniel said. "The energy, the atmosphere...it was somewhere I could see myself playing."