Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel is the first NCAA Division III women’s basketball player to score in a collegiate game with only one arm. The junior guard was born with a slightly shortened right arm, which she cannot use.
The 22-year-old made the historic basket from near the three-point line, snapping the net without touching the rim.
She told the Associated Press, “I kind of just shot the ball with the anticipation that I would have to go and get it back on a rebound. When the shot actually went in, I was more so surprised.”
READ ALSO: How Fisk’s Morgan Price became the first HBCU gymnast to receive a perfect 10 score
“It is not very common to see somebody with one arm playing basketball. I think there’s probably about two or three of us in the collegiate level,” Sinaman-Daniel expressed.
Her coach, Martin Rather, said, “My first thought was, ‘That’s history and we need to take a second to pause and celebrate it. Everybody just swarmed Baileigh, giving her high fives, celebrating her.”
The guard at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said her childhood idol LeBron James made her fall in love with the sport 15 years ago.
However, it was a traumatic rejection at Mountain View High School that set her on her course to history.
She remembered, “I had played for my high school for about three years, and when I tried out again in my senior year, as I always did, I actually got cut and the coach basically told me that I wasn’t needed on the team.”
She was miserable and wept for two days until she decided to take a risk while she was sitting in her car.
Sinaman-Daniel said, “I thought to myself, I could do this in college. 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.”
The 5-foot-6-inch guard joined the transfer portal after two years at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, and she is now thriving.
READ ALSO: Meet Autumn Lockwood, the first Black woman coach to win a Super Bowl
Sinaman-Daniel’s on-court success has prompted special training methods that have allowed her to build essential skills given that she was not always able to perform the usual balance and ball control strategies used by two-armed players.
“Taking passes or giving a good pass or figuring out the right shooting form — I’ve had to tweak and adjust,” she noted.
Sinaman-Daniel scored her second basket on her birthday, almost seven weeks after her first, adding to her breakout season’s excitement.
Her coach, Rather, believes her impact extends beyond the court.
“We’re showing that we can both win and have really high quality players that might not look like everybody else on our team,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, Sinaman-Daniel hopes her accomplishment may encourage others going through similar struggles. She is currently a psychology student at an institution outside of Boston.
“When people look at me, I just hope they see me as Baileigh. I hope they see me as a basketball player and also see me as somebody who’s willing and able to do everything that everybody else is doing,” she said.
READ ALSO: LeBron James makes NBA history in Lakers’ victory over Warriors
