BY MEGAN SHEEHAN<\/p>\n
PHOTOS BY ALICE G. PATTERSON<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you have not yet heard the name Tiana Mangakahia, get ready.<\/p>\n
Said to be the top basketball player (player period, between both men and women) at Syracuse University, Tiana is a woman with goals, records, and success on her mind and in her future. Tiana will no doubt be in the WNBA before you know it.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t such an easy start. Hailing from Australia, Tiana went right into professional basketball after high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to play one year professionally in Australia,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter that year I was going to go play again for another team but Hutchinson Community College in Kansas offered me a full ride to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing professionally, however meant Tiana was no long considered amateur and wasn\u2019t actually allowed to physically play or the school would end up with some hefty violations. Tiana stayed with the school and was able to practice with the girls. By the time sophomore year arrived, she finally got some court time. Tiana was not able to play in actual games, but she was able to participate in scrimmages.<\/p>\n
This is when she would be seen and get her shot at a Division I school. Tiana received offers from Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, University of Southern California, University of Massachusetts, and of course, Syracuse University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like the [basketball] program was a better program than the others,\u201d Tiana said. \u201cGrowing up when I\u2019d watch basketball on TV I always saw Syracuse so I decided to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question remained, however: Would Tiana get to play?<\/p>\n
SU Women\u2019s Basketball Coach Quentin Hillsman broke the news in August of 2017: The NCAA ruled Tiana three years eligible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to pay back the money to my team that I played for, I had to write in letters, get receipts, appeals \u2014 it was a lot of work.,\u201d Tiana said. \u201cBut it was definitely worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiana could finally play alongside her team in games.<\/p>\n
And she flourished. Tiana is a four-time ACC Player Of The Week, she\u2019s broken the ACC Tournament record for assists, and she is the fastest player in program history to score 1,000 points.<\/p>\n
This bird took off. The draft was on the table for Tiana. By April, she had to decide what she was going to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t like where I was seeded on the mock draft,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was second round. It wasn\u2019t where I wanted it to be and I figured having another year at Syracuse would help me get it to first round, top 5, top 10. That\u2019s the main reason I decided to stay another year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It turned out to be the right decision. Tiana graduated from SU and is on her way to getting her master of science degree in sport venue and event management while continuing to play.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fight of her life<\/p>\n
Life, however, has a way of throwing you a curveball when you least expect it, and Tiana was about to find that out.<\/p>\n
In May of 2019, Tiana found a lump in her left breast. At first, full panic didn\u2019t set in. She went to the student health center at SU, where she was told the lump might go away on its own. If it didn\u2019t, she was instructed to come back in two weeks.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Instead, the lump grew. Tiana now needed an ultrasound, a mammogram, and then a biopsy.\u00a0At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 18, Tiana got a call from the doctor. He told her she had stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma. At first, she was stunned. She didn\u2019t understand what the doctor meant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was confused, because I would expect him to just say that I have breast cancer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Once the truth sunk in, Tiana started making calls \u2014 to her best friend, her parents, and Coach Q. Her parents wanted her to come home to Australia. But Tiana wanted to stay in Syracuse\u2014she could get excellent treatment here, and she felt it would keep her life as normal as possible during treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaying here makes me feel more part of the team,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like if I were to go home or be anywhere else I wouldn\u2019t feel as close to the team as I do now. So it\u2019s been good staying here.\u201d
\nBeing the fighter she is, Tiana was ready for battle straight away. She began treatment on July 5 with her family by her side. Between her parents and five brothers, she\u2019s had family rotating in and out of the States consistently to keep her from facing any of her treatment alone. And Tiana admits that the treatment can be rough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel tired, and a bit down emotionally for about four days. I get a shot once a month which makes me emotional,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t like being sad so I try to be not sad. But that shot makes me so mad! I\u2019m laugh crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the weeks of treatment, counseling, hormones, sickness, fatigue, emotional shifts and having to put her passion on hold, Tiana considers herself blessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is different when it comes to cancer,\u201d she said. \u201cSome go [to treatment] every day. I\u2019m once every two weeks so I\u2019m lucky. I\u2019m blessed. I get a couple days sick and then I\u2019m good. It\u2019s not sick, sick, sick every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A new path<\/p>\n
This detour has really given Tiana perspective. It\u2019s given her another goal in life in addition to being a professional ballplayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I want to help get the message across more about breast cancer awareness and how it\u2019s really important for people to understand what other people go through,\u201d she said, \u201cnot even just for cancer but in everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers how upset she was the day she was diagnosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day I found out, I went to Tops and my cart rolled off,\u201d she said. \u201cIt almost hit somebody, and if that person had yelled at me or if that person had said something mean to me, I probably would have just broken down and cried. It makes me think, you just never know what someone is going through.\u201d<\/p>\n
That moment and the lack of reaction from the fellow shopper really stuck with Tiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d kind of like to get into speaking about what people go through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The outlook Tiana possesses is inspiring. She claims she wasn\u2019t fully able to accept her diagnosis or really grasp it at first. Yet she\u2019s living it and already planning on how to help others who may go through a similar journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything happens for a reason,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there was a reason for this. I know it sucks. I feel like maybe in the future it will help me speak to younger people who go through trials and hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiana believes this experience\u2014which she calls \u201cone of the hardest times ever\u201d in her life\u2014was meant to point her life in a different direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a different path for me, not just basketball,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I never knew what I wanted to do other than basketball. This is definitely something that I can see myself doing, as far as being an advocate.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s giving up on basketball. She expects to be back to training with the team in January of 2020. Her most recent ultrasound (as of Sept. 6) shows that her treatment has been successful so far; her doctors plan to keep her on the same plan through mid-October, followed by surgery in November.<\/p>\n
When she beats cancer\u2014and she has no doubt that she will\u2014Tiana knows just how she wants to celebrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want everyone to be there when I ring the bell. I want all of my brothers there,\u201d she said. \u201cThat day will be a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiana thanks her team of doctors, Dr. Tucker, Dr. Kirschner, and Dr.Kort, as well as Dr. Partridge of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She\u2019s also grateful to the people in the Syracuse community who have sent her messages of support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me think about my decision coming to Syracuse and how amazing it\u2019s been throughout this situation,\u201d Tiana said. \u201cJust thanks to everyone for their support in Syracuse: the community, the school, the program, just everybody. I feel like I couldn\u2019t have asked for more support. Everyone has been there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes they\u2019ll be there the day she returns to the basketball court. And if she had her pick of opponents?<\/p>\n
\u201cUConn,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to play against them so bad. We\u2019re going to be so good. I\u2019m so excited. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY MEGAN SHEEHAN PHOTOS BY ALICE G. PATTERSON If you have not yet heard the name Tiana Mangakahia, get ready. Said to be the top basketball player (player period, between both men and women) at Syracuse University, Tiana is a woman with goals, records, and success on her mind and in her future. Tiana…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,101],"tags":[966,739,965,964,215,962,963],"class_list":["post-2601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story","category-features","tag-tough4t","tag-breast-cancer","tag-fighter","tag-survivor","tag-syracuse-university","tag-tiana-mangakahia","tag-womens-basketball"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Tiania-Mangakahia-SU-Womens-Basketball-Breast-Cancer-Awareness-0006.jpg?fit=3470%2C5200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3480,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3480","url_meta":{"origin":2601,"position":0},"title":"Cover: Felisha Legette-Jack – SU hoops hero puts her heart into everything she does","author":"Alyssa Dearborn","date":"February 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Norah Machia When Syracuse University Women\u2019s Basketball Coach Felisha Legette-Jack unexpectedly lost a close friend to heart disease, it was both a shock and a wake-up call. 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