Giant Steps

2018 MAC Giant Steps Recipients Announced

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Lycoming’s Abdullahi Abdi and Brody Keefe will receive the award on Tuesday at the 18th Annual MAC Awards Luncheon

ANNVILLE, Pa. (Conference News) – The Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has announced the 2018 recipients of the MAC Giant Steps Awards. Abdullahi Abdi, a member of the Lycoming College men’s soccer program, and Brody Keefe, a member of the Lycoming College wrestling squad, will receive their awards officially on Tuesday, May 1 at the 18th Annual MAC Awards Luncheon at Misericordia University.
 
The MAC Giant Steps Award is given to individuals or teams who have overcome adversity while still succeeding in life, who use sports as a vehicle for positive social change, who break down barriers to provide opportunities to those who follow behind them, and those who inspire us to do great things using the positive aspects of sport. The award is modeled after the national award, presented by the Institute for Sport and Social Justice (formerly known as the National Consortium for Academics and Sports).
 
“Athletics play a vital role in the growth and success of MAC student-athletes; that seems to be the case with Abdullahi Abdi and Brody Keefe,” said Marie Stroman, MAC Associate Executive Director. “The MAC SAAC recognizes these individuals have been an inspiration to others through their accomplishments as student-athletes while also facing significant challenges in their lives.”
 
Abdullahi Abdi, Lycoming College
Abdullahi Abdi grew up in the midst of a conflict that he didn’t start or really even understand. Born in Kenya to the parents of refugees from Somalia, Abdi grew up on the edge of war. Abdi grew up in refugee camps where overpopulation and dwindling resources became problematic. Water was sometimes miles away and food was far from plentiful. The houses were small and dirty where half a dozen people crammed into rooms with no beds.

When he was nine, his neighbor was robbed and beaten. “That was the worst night for me at the refugee camp” he said. “I remember it as it happened like yesterday.”

Presented with the opportunity to leave Kenya for the United States when Abdi was 13, the family jumped at the opportunity and found a home in Seattle, Wash. There, Abdi struggled with English, his fifth language, and was teased for it. There was one place he was never teased, though, and that was on the soccer field.

By his senior year, the fast, shifty 5’5”, 130-pound Abdi developed into an all-state player at James Garfield High School and by a stroke of luck and through some internet scouting, he fell onto the radar of Lycoming College coach Nate Gibboney. Just four years after learning English, Abdi made his way across the country to enroll at Lycoming College, listed as one of the best 200 liberal arts colleges in America by U.S. News & World Report.

Soccer, of course, was never the issue that might hold Abdi back. The Warriors enjoyed the best four-year run in school history with Abdi in the midfield. A three-time all-region selection, Abdi helped lead the winningest senior class in program history with 61 wins and two MAC Commonwealth titles, including one his senior year.

In the classroom, Abdi relied on a support system of tutors, proofreaders, professors - anyone who could help him with his fifth language. He never wavered on his determination to earn a degree and do so on time. He is now two months from graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice and he said he wants to return to Seattle after graduation and help disadvantaged teens in his neighborhood who don’t believe they can be successful and go to college.

Abdi, now a U.S. citizen, is grateful for the opportunities provided along the way. Less than a decade ago, he was living in a No-Man’s Land, not welcomed in his home country and barely welcomed in the one he lived in. Today, his goal is to force his family on one more long journey, more than 2,600 miles from Seattle to Williamsport in early May to watch the first person from their family receive a college degree.
 
Brody Keefe, Lycoming
On Sept. 2, 2015, Brody Keefe was in class at Pleasant Valley High School, where he was a senior, when he felt a lump. Days later, doctors told him it was T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a rare form of blood cancer.

In an instant, his wrestling career, which included placing twice at his district championships and a 64-29 record, vanished. Keefe was in the hospital for a month and when he left it, he felt drained, sick and weak from treatments, weighing just 156 pounds.

Almost a year after he discovered the lump, Keefe enrolled at Lycoming College because head wrestling coach Roger Crebs promised him a role on the team no matter what. During his first two seasons at Lycoming, even after his treatments have declared him cancer-free, he leaves campus on the last Friday of every month to travel back to the Lehigh Valley for chemotherapy.

Even as he continues his treatments, his role on the wrestling team has grown, from a backup that was getting his strength and wind back to someone who may have started at the NCAA Southeast Regionals at 197 pounds if not for a round of mandated treatment. He doubled his wins total, going from four wins in 2016-17 to eight this year, pinning three opponents and winning matches at two of the three dual meets he grappled in.

“He’s just very positive about it,” Crebs said. “[Cancer’s] not going to set him back, it’s not going to hinder him. He just keeps going forward. That I think rubs off on the guys too. When they start feeling tired, all I have to say is, ‘Look at Brody, he’s not tired.’”

There is no doubt that wrestling is one of the most physical sports sponsored by the NCAA or the MAC. It demands physical fitness, demands a grit, toughness and focus that is different than just about any other sport. If you can’t give those things, the likelihood is that you will end up hurt. Now imagine being Brody Keefe and doing it in between chemotherapy treatments. And posting a winning record (8-6) to boot.

“I feel like as the years go on and he pushes through his college career, he’s going to look back on that and he’s going to be like, ‘I went through all this, now look at me. I’m still wrestling. I’m still pushing forward,’” teammate Travis Ogden said. “I think he’ll carry that through his career like a chip on his shoulder.”
 

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